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Lieut. H.A.Wise, (7.S.JV. 


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CAPTAIN BRAND 


OF THE 

SCHOONER “CENTIPEDE” 


BY 

LIEUT. HENRY A. WISE, U.S.N. 

(HARRY GRINGO) 

- \I/A 3;:' ' 



NEW YOEK 

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 
December, 1894 


HARPER’S FRANKLIN SQUARE LIBRARY. -LATEST ISSUE 


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Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price. 


CAPTAIN BRAND 

OF THE 

SCHOONER “ CENTIPEDE ” 


A PIRATE OF EMINENCE IN THE WEST INDIES; HIS LOVES 
AND EXPLOITS, TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT 
OF THE SINGULAR MANNER BY WHICH 
HE DEPARTED THIS LIFE 




BY 

LIEUT. HENRY A. \yiSE, U.S.N. 

(HARRY GRINGO) 




NEW YORK 

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 





1894 




CONTENTS 


PART I 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. SPREADING THE STRANDS 1 

II. CALM 3 

III. HIGH NOON 9 

IV. SUNSET 15 

V. DARKNESS 18 

VI. DANGER 26 

VII. THE MEETING AND MOURNING 33 

VIII. CAPTAIN BRAND AT HOME 34 

IX. MASTER AND MATE 40 

X. AN ANCIENT MARINER WITH ONE EYE 48 

XI. CONVERSATION IN SLEEVES AND POCKETS 54 

XII. DOCTOR AND PRIEST 58 

XIII. A MANLY FANDANGO 64 

xrv. A pirates’ dinner 67 

XV. DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER 74 

XVI. NUPTIALS OP THE GIRL WITH DARK EYES 84 

XVII. THE DOOM OF DOS^A LUCIA 93 

XVIII. END OP THE BANQUET 98 

XIX. FANDANGO ON ONE LEG 102 

XX. BUSINESS Ill 

XXI. TREASURE 116 

XXII. PLEASURE 120 

XXIII. WORK 126 

XXIV. CAUGHT IN A NET 130 

XXV. THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE NET 133 

XXVI. THE HURRICANE 137 

XXVII. THE VIRGIN MARY 139 

XXVIII. THE ARK THAT JACK BUILT 142 

PART II 

XXIX. LAYING UP THE STRANDS 147 

XXX, OLD FRIENDS 152 

XXXI. THE COMMANDER OF THE “ ROSALIE ” 157 

iii 


IV 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. PAGE 

XXXII. A SPLICE PARTED 162 

XXXIII. THE BLUE PENNANT IN THE CABIN 165 

XXXIV. THE DEVIL TO PAY 167 

XXXV. AND THE PITCH HOT 172 

XXXVI. THE CHASE 177 

XXXVII. THE WRECK OF THE “ CENTIPEDE” 180 

XXXVIII. VULTURES AND SHARKS 186 

XXXIX. ESCONDIDO 191 

XL. PAUL DARCANTEL 196 

XLI. INSTINCT AND WONDER 203 

XLII. TRUTH AND TERROR 207 

XLIII. PEACE AND LOVE 213 

XLIV. SNUFF OUT OF A DIAMOND BOX 217 

XLV. LILIES AND SEAWEED 221 

XLVI. PARTING 225 

XLVII. DEVOTION 229 

XLVIII. ALL ALIVE AGAIN 232 

XLIX. THE ROPE LAID UP 236 

L. ON A BED OF THORNS 244 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE CENTIPEDE” 


part ^firet 


CHAPTER I 

SPREADING THE STRANDS 

'“Shout three times three, like Ocean’s surges, 

Join, brothers, join the toast with me ; 

Here’s to the wind of life, which urges 
The ship with swelling waves o’er sea 1 ’’ 

“ Masters, I cannot spin a yarn 

Twice laid with words of silken stuff, 

A fact’s a fact ; and ye may Tarn 
The rights o’ this, though wild and rough 
My words may loom. ’Tis your consarn, 

Not mine, to understand. Enough “ 

It was in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and five, and in 
the River Garonne, where a large, wholesome merchant-brig lay 
placidly on the broad and shining water. The fair city of Bor- 
deaux, with its great mass of yellow-tinted buildings, towers, and 
cliurches, rose from the river’s banks, and the din and bustle of the 
great mart came faintly to the ear. The sails of the brig were 
loosed, the crew were hauling home the sheets and hoisting the 
top-sails with the clear, hearty songs of English sailors, while the 
anchor was under foot and the cable rubbing with a taut strain 
against the vessel’s bluff bows. At the gangway stood a large, 
handsome seaman, bronzed by the sun and winds of about half a 
century, dressed in a square-cut blue jacket and loose trousers, 
talking to the pilot — a brown little Frenchman, in coarse serge 
raiment and large, clumsy sabots. The conversation between them 
was carried on partly by signs, for, in answer to the pilot, the 
other threw his stalwart arm aloft toward the folds of the spread- 
ing canvas, and nodded his head. 

Fort hien ! vite done ! mon capitaine^'* said the pilot ; “ the 
tide is on the ebb ; let us go. Up anchor ! ” 


2 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “CENTIPEDE 


Ay, pilot ! ” replied the captain, pulling out his watch ; “ in 
ten minutes. The ladies, you know, must have time to say good- 
by. Isn’t it so, my pilot ? ” 

The gallant little Frenchman smiled in acquiescence, and, taking 
off his glazed hat with the air of a courtier, said, ‘‘ Pardieu / cer- 
tainly ; why not ? Jean Marie would lose his pilotage rather than 
hurry a lady.” 

Going aft to the raised cabin on the quarter-deck, the captain 
softly opened the starboard door, and looking in, said, in a kindly 
tone : 

“ It is time to part, my friends ; the pilot says we are losing the 
strength of the tide, so we must kiss and be off.” 

Two lovely women were sitting, hand clasped in hand, on the 
sofa of the transom. You saw they were sisters of nearly the same 
age, and a little boy and girl tumbling about their knees showed 
they were mothers — young mothers, too, for the soft, full, rounded 
forms of womanhood, with the flush of health and matronly pride 
tinged their cheeks, while masses of dark hair banded over their 
smooth brows and tearful e3"es told the story at a glance. They 
rose together as the captain spoke. 

“ Adieu, chhre Rosalie / we shall soon meet again, let us hope, 
never more to part.” 

“ Adieu, Nathalie ! adieu, dearest sister ! adieu ! adieu ! ” 

The loving arms were twined around each other in the last 
embrace ; the tears fell like gentle rain, but with smiles of hope 
and trustfulness they parted. 

“ Ay,” said the sturdy skipper, as he stood, with eyes brimful of 
moisture, regarding the sisters — “ ay, trust me for bringing you 
together again. Well do I remember when you were little wee 
things, when I brought you to France after the earthquake in 
Jamaica; just like these little rogues here” — and he laid his 
brawny hands on the heads of the children, who clung to each 
other within the folds of their mothers’ dresses ; ‘‘ but never fear, 
my darlings,” he went on, ‘‘you will meet happily again. Ay, 
that you shall, if old Jacob Blunt be above land or water.” 

A boat which was lying alongside the brig shoved off ; the little 
boy, who had been left on board, was held high above the rail in 
the arms of a sturdy negro, while the mother stood beside him, 
waving her handkerchief to the boat as it pulled rapidly toward 
the shore. 

“ Man the windlass, lads ! ” cried the captain. 


“Mr. Binks. 


CALM 


3 


brace round the head-yards, and up with the jib as soon as tlie 
anchor’s aweigh.” 

The windlass clinked as the iron pawls caught the strain of the 
cable, the anchor was wrenched from its oozy bed, the vessel’s 
head fell off, and, gathering way, she moved quietly down the 
River Garonne. 


CHAPTER II 

CALM 

It ceased : yet still the sails made on 
A pleasant noise till noon— 

A noise like that of a hidden brook 
In the leafy month of Jane. 

Till noon we quietly sailed on, 

Yet never a breeze did breathe : 

Slowly and smoothly went the ship. 

Moved onward from beneath.” 

The great lumbering brig, with yards square, main-sail hauled 
up, and the jib and try-sail in the brails, lay listlessly rolling on 
the easy swell of the water, giving a gentle send forward every 
minute or so, when the sluggish sails would come with a thun- 
dering slap against the masts, and the loose cordage would rattle 
like a drum-major’s rattan on a spree. The sea was one glassy 
mirror of undulations, shimmering out into full blaze as the rising 
sun just threw its rays along the crest of the ocean swell ; and 
then, dipping down into the rolling mass, the hue would change 
to a dark green, and, coming up again under the brig’s black 
counter, would swish out into a little shower of bubbles, and 
sparkle again joyously. 

Away off in the distance lay the island of Jamaica — the early 
haze about the mountain tops rising like a white lace veil from the 
deep valleys below, with here and there a white dot of a cluster of 
buildings gleaming out from the sombre land like the flicker of a 
heliotrope, and at intervals the base of the coast bursting forth in 
a long, heavy fringe of foam, as the lazy breakers chafed idly about 
the rocks of some projecting headland. Nearer, too, was the dark 
succession of waving blue lines in parallel bars and patches of the 
young land wind, tipping the backs of the rollers in a fluttering 
ripple of cat’s-paws, and then wandering sportively away out to 
sea. 


4 CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 

On board the brig, forward, were three or four barefooted 
sailors, in loose frocks and trousers, moving lazily about the decks, 
drawing buckets of water over the side and dashing it against the 
bulwarks, while others were scrubbing and clearing up the vessel 
for the day. The caboose, too, began to show signs of life, and a 
thin column of smoke rose gracefully up in the calm morning air 
until it came within the eddying influence of the sails and top- 
hamper, when a bit of roll would puff it away in blue curls 
beyond. 

Abaft stood a low, squat-built sailor at the wheel, his striped 
Guernsey cap hanging on one of the spokes, and his body leaning, 
half asleep, over the barrel, which gave him a sharp twitch every 
now and then when the sea caught the rudder on the wrong side. 
Near at hand, with an arm around an after top-mast backstay, and 
head resting over the rail, was the mate, Mr. Binks, with a spy- 
glass to his eye, through which he was peering at the distant hills 
of Jamaica. Presently, as he wag about to withdraw the brass 
tube, and as the old brig yawed with her head inshore, something 
appeared to arrest his attention ; for, changing his position, and 
climbing up to the break of the deck-cabin, he steadied himself by 
the shrouds, and rubbing his eye with the sleeve of his shirt, he 
gave a long look through the glass, muttering to himself the while. 
At last, having apparently made up his mind, he sung out to the 
man at the wheel in this strain : 

“ Ben, my lad, look alive ; catch a turn with them halyards over 
the lee wheel ; and just take this ’ere glass and trip up to the fore- 
yard, and see what ye make of that fellow, here away under the 
easternmost headland.” 

Ben, without more ado, secured the spokes of the wheel, clapped 
his cap on his head, hitched up his trousers, and, taking the glass 
from the mate, rolled away up the fore-rigging. Meanwhile Mr. 
Binks walked forward, stopping a moment at the caboose to take 
a tin pot of coffee from the cook, and then, going on to the top- 
sail-sheet bitts, he carefully seated himself, and leisurely began to 
stir up the sugar in his beverage with an iron spoon, making a 
little cymbal music with it on the outside while he gulped it down. 
He had not been many minutes occupied in this way when Ben 
hailed the deck from the fore-yard. 

‘‘ On deck there ! ” 

“ Halloa ! ” ejaculated Mr. Binks. 

“ I see that craft,” cried Ben ; “ she’s a fore-and-after, sails 


CALM 


5 


down, and sweeping along the land. She hasn’t got a breath of 
wind, sir.” 

“ Very well ! ” said Mr. Binks, speaking into the tin pot with a 
sound like a sheet-iron organ ; “ come down.” 

As Ben wriggled himself off the fore-yard and caught hold’ 
of the futtock-shrouds to swing into the standing rigging, he 
suddenly paused, and putting the glass again to his eye, he sung 
out : 

“ I say, sir ! here is a big chap away off on the other quarter, 
under top-sails. There ! Perhaps ye can see him from the deck, 
about a handspike clear of the sun ” — pointing with the spy-glass, 
as he spoke, in the proper direction. 

‘‘ All right ! ” said the mate, as he began again the cymbal pot- 
and-spoon music. “ Becalmed, ain’t he ? ” 

“ Yes, sir ; not enough air to raise a hair on my old grand- 
mother’s wig,” muttered Ben, as he slowly trotted down the 
rigging. 

The sun came up glowing like a ball of fire. The land wind died 
away long before it fluttered far off from the island, and, saving 
the uneasy clatter at times of the loose sails and running gear, all 
remained as before. It was getting on toward eight o’clock, and 
while the cook was dishing the breakfast mess for the crew beneath 
an awning forward of the quarter-deck, the captain came up from 
his cabin below. The stalwart old seaman stepped to the bulwarks, 
and, shading his eyes with his hand from the glare, he took a broad 
glance over the water to seaward, nodded to the mate, and said in 
a cheerful voice : 

“ Dull times, matey ! No signs of a breeze yet, eh ? ” 

No, captain,” said Mr. Binks ; “ dead as ditch-water ; not been 
enough air to lift a feather since you went below at four o’clock. 
But we have sagged inshore by the current a few leagues during 
the night, and here’s old Jamaica plain in sight, broad off the 
bow.” 

‘‘ Well, it’s not so bad after all, a forty-four days’ passage — so 
I’ll tell my Lady-bird passenger.” 

Going to the latticed door of the deck-cabin, the jolly skipper 
threw it wide open, clapped his hands together thrice, and then, 
placing them to his mouth like a speaking trumpet, he bellowed 
out, in a deep, low roar : 

“ Heave out there, all hands ! Heave out. Lady-bird and baby ! 
Land ho ! ” 


6 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


There came a joyous note from a soft womanly voice within a 
screen drawn across the after-cabin, mingled with a little cooing 
grunt from a child, and presently an inner door swung back, and 
the sweetest little tot of a boy came tumbling out into the open 
space, and sprung at once into the captain’s arms. The little fellow 
buried his brown curly head into the old skipper’s whiskers, and 
then, kicking up his fat naked legs, he laughed and chattered like 
a magpie. 

“ Aha, you young scamp ! this small nose smells the oranges and 
cinnamon, eh ? And dear \2izy mamma shuts her pretty eyes, and 
won’t look for papa, and so near home too ! ” 

Here Mine. Rosalie’s low sweet voice trilled out merrily in a 
slightly foreign accent, while the contralto tones vibrated on the 
ear like the note of a harp. 

“ Ah ! hon capitaine^ how could you deceive me ? Still, I for- 
give you for telling me last night that we were so far from Kings- 
ton. When you know too,” she went on, in her Creole accent, 
“ how I love and want to see my dear husband these last four 
years, since you carried him away in your good big ship. But 
never mind, my good friend, I shall pay you off one of these days ; 
and now send, please, for Banou to dress his little boy.” 

Scarcely had the worthy skipper reached a bell-rope near at 
hand and given it one jerk, than the cabin door opened, and in 
stepped a brawny black, whose bare woolly head and white teeth 
and eyes glittered with delight. There was that about his face 
which indicated intelligence, courage, devotion, and humanity — 
those indescribable marks of expression which Nature sometimes 
stamps in unmistakable lines on the skin, whether it be white or 
black. He was below the middle height, but the large head was 
set, with a great swelling throat, on the shoulders of a Titan. His 
loose white-and-red striped shirt was thrown well back over his 
black and broad chest ; and putting out a pair of muscular arms 
that seemed as massive and heavy as lignum-vitfe, the boy jumped 
from the captain to meet them ; and then sticking his little soft 
legs down the slack of Banou’s shirt, he ran his rosy fingers in his 
wool, and shouted with glee. 

“ Oh, ho ! ” said the black, as he passed his huge arms around the 
little fellow, and smoothed down his scanty night-dress as if it 
were the plumage of a bird— oh, ho ! little Master Henri loves his 
Banou, eh ? Good ; he take bath.” 

Bearing his charge out upon the quarter-deck beneath the awn- 


CALM 


1 


ing, he pulled a large tub from under a boat turned upside down 
over the deck-cabin ; and then, while the young monkey had 
scrambled round to his back, and was beating a tattoo with his 
tiny fists on his shoulders, Banou caught up a bucket and pro- 
ceeded to draw water from over the side, which he dashed into the 
tub. When he liad nearly filled the tub he felt around with his 
black paws as delicately as if he was about to seize a mosquito, and, 
clutching the kicking legs with one hand, he spun the little fellow 
a somersault over his head, and skinning off at the same time his 
diminutive frock, plunged him into the sparkling brine, singing the 
while in a laughing chant : 

“ Dis is the way strong Banou catch him, 

First he strip and den he 'plash him ; 

Henri he jump and 'cream for his moder, 

But Banou lub him more dan his broder ! " 

Here the brawny nurse would souse him head over heels in the 
sparkling water, lift him up at every dip, rub his black nose all 
over him, making mock bites at the little legs and stomach ; and, 
finally, holding him aloft, dripping, laughing, and struggling, go 
on with his refrain : 

“ What will papa say when he sees him, 

Pickaninny boy dat is sure to please him ? 

Big Banou he rub and dress him, 

But little Henri he kick and pinch him ! ” 

All this time the men seated forward on the deck, pegging away 
deep into their mess-kids, would pause occasionally, shake their 
great tarry fingers at the imp, and chuckle pleasantly, with their 
mouths full of lobscouse, as if the urchin belonged to them as 
individual property. 

“ What a tidy little chap he’ll make some of these days, Ben, 
a-furlin’ the light sails in a squall ! My eye ! Wouldn’t I like to 
live and see him ! ” 

“ilo, no, messmates,” replied that worthy, as he crunched a 
biscuit and took a sip of coffee out of the pot, “ that ’ere child will, 
some of these times, when he’s growed a bit, be a-wearin’ gold 
swabs on his shoulders, and a-givin’ his orders like a hadmiral of a 
fleet ! ” 

“ Quite right, my hearty ! It ’ll never do for sich a knowin’ little 
chub to spend his days along-shore a-bilin’ sugar-cane on a planta- 


8 CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 

tion, and a-footin’ up accounts ; for, ye mind, he was like the chip 
as was 

“ ‘ Born at sea, and his cradle a frigate, 

The boatswain he nursed him true-blue ; 

He’ll soon learn to fight, drink, and jig it. 

And quiz every soul of the crew 1 ’ ” 

While these old salts were thus carving out a destiny for the 
youngster the black gave him a final souse in the tub, and then 
holding him up to drain, as it were, for the last time, exclaimed, 
while his face lighted up with pleasure : 

“ Oh, ho, my little massa ! what will papa say to-morrow when 
he sees his brave Henri ? ’’ 

‘‘Ah ! how happy he will be, Banou ! ” said the lovely mother, 
who had just come on deck, as she kissed the mouth of the young 
scamp, while the black wrapped and dried his little naked body in 
a large towel. 

“ Ah, yes ! my mistress, we will be happy once more to get 
home to master on the plantation.” 

“ Tell me — tell me, good capitaine,^ said she, turning in a pretty, 
coquettish way to the skipper, “ when shall we get into port ? ” 

It was a sight to see her, in the loose, white morning-gown 
folded in plaits about the swelling bosom, her slender waist clasped 
by a fiowing blue sash, the dark brown satin bands of her hair con- 
fined by a large gold filigree pin, and half concealed by a jaunty 
little French cap, with the ribbons floating about her pear-shaped 
ears ; and while her soft, dark hazel eyes were bent eagerly toward 
the solid old skipper, her round, rosy, dimpled fingers clasped a 
miniature locket fastened by a massive linked gold chain around 
her neck. Ah ! she was a sight to see and love ! 

“ Tell me, mo7i cher Capitaine Blunt, how many hours or min- 
utes will it be before I shall behold my husband ?” 

The good-natured skipper laughed pleasantly at the eagerness of 
his beautiful passenger, and opening his hands wide, he gave vent 
to a long, low whistle, and replied : 

“ When the wind comes from good San Antonio, my Lady-bird 
—when the sea-breeze makes— then the old brig will reel off the 
knots ! But see ! just now not a breath to keep a tropic bird’s 
wings out. There, look at that fellow ! ” 

High up in the heavens two or three man-of-war birds, with 
wide-spread pointed wings, and their swallow-tails cut as sharp as 
knife blades, were heading seaward, and every little while falling 


HIGH NOON 


9 


in a rapid sidelong plunge, as if in a vacuum, and then again giving 
an almost imperceptible dash with their pinions as they recovered 
the lost space and continued on in their silent flight. 

‘‘ That’s a sure sign. Mine. Rosalie,” continued the skipper, 
that the trade wind has blown itself out, and the chances are that 
this hot sun will drink up the flying clouds, and leave us in a dead 
calm till the moon quarters to-night. What say you, Mr. Binks ? 
Am I right?” 

“ Never know’d you to be wrong, sir,” said the mate, with an 
honest intonation of voice, as he tried to stare the sun out of coun- 
tenance in following the captain’s glance. 

“ Helas / ” said the young mother, with a little sigh of sadness, 
as she stood peering over the lee rails to the green hills and slopes 
of the island, standing boldly out now with the lofty blue moun- 
tains cutting the sky ten thousand feet in mid-heaven ; so near, 
too ; and he is thinking and waiting for us ! ” 

“ Come,” exclaimed the skipper heartily, “ the youngster wants 
his breakfast ! ” 


CHAPTER III 

HIGH NOON 

“ No life is in the air, but in the waters 

Are creatures huge, and terrible, and strong ; 

The sword-fish and the shark pursue their slaughters ; 

War universal reigns these depths along. 

The lovely purple of the noon’s bestowing 
Has vanished from the waters, where it flung 
A royal color, such as gems are throwing 
Tyrian or regal garniture among.” 

High noon ! Still the stanch old brig bowed and dipped her 
bluff bows into the long, easy swell of the tropics ; the round, 
flat counter sent the briny bubbles sparkling away in the glare of 
the noontide sun ; the sails flapped and chafed against the spars 
and rigging, while the crew sheltered themselves beneath the awn- 
ings and dozed on peacefully. 

Off to seaward a few dead trade-clouds showed their white bulg- 
ing cheeks along the horizon, and occasionally a fluttering blue 
patch of a breeze would skim furtively over the backs of the 
rollers ; but long before they reached the brig they had expended 
their force and expired in the boundless calm. 


10 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Not SO, however, with the large sail that had been seen from 
the brig in the early morning. For, with a lofty spread of 
kites and a studding-sail or two, she at times caught a flirting puff 
of air, and when the sun had passed the zenith she had approached 
within half a mile or less of the brig. There was no mis- 
taking the stranger’s character. Her taunt, trim masts, square 
yards, and clear, delicate black tracery of rigging, shadowed by 
a wide spread of snow-white canvas over the low, dark hull — whicli 
at every roll in the gentle undulations exposed a row of ports with 
a glance of white inner bulwarks, while the brass stars of her 
battery reflected sparks of fire from the blazing rays of the sun — 
showed she was a man-of-war. 

She’s one of our cruisers, I think, sir,” said the mate, as he 
handed the spy-glass to the captain ; “ but Ben here believes con- • 
trariwise, and says she is a French corvette.” 

“Have to try again, Mr. Binks ; for, to my mind, she’s an out- 
and-out Yankee sloop-of-war. Ay ! there goes his colors up to the 
gaff ; so up with our ensign, or else he’ll be burning some powder 
for us.” 

Even while they were speaking a flag went rapidly up in a roll 
to the corvette’s peak, when, shaking itself clear, it lay white and 
red, with a galaxy of white stars in a blue union, on the lee side of 
the spanker ; while at the same instant a long, thin, coach-whip of 
a pennant unspun itself from the main-truck, and hung motionless 
in the calm down the mast. Her decks were full of men, standing 
in groups under the shade of the sails to leeward ; and on the poop 
were three or four officers in uniform and straw hats. One of these 
last stood for some time gazing at the brig — one hand resting on 
the ratlines of the mizzen-shrouds, and the other slowly swinging 
a trumpet backward and forward. Presently an officer with a pair 
of gleaming epaulets on his shoulders mounted the poop ladder, 
touched his hat, and waved his hand toward the brig. A moment 
after : 

“ Brig ahoy ! ” came in sharp, clear, manly tone through the 
trumpet. 

“ Sir ? ” 

“ What brig is that ? ” 

“ The Martha Blunt. Named after my dear old wife, God bless 
her! and myself, Jacob Blunt, God bless me !” added the jolly 
skipper, in a sotto voce chuckle to the fair passenger who stood 
beside him. 


HIGH NOON 


11 


“ Where are you from, and where bound ? ” came again through 
the trumpet. 

Bordeaux, and bound to Kingston. We have a free passport 
from Sir Robert Calder and Admiral Villeneuve.” 

There was a wave of the trumpet as the speaker finished hailing, 
and then, touching his hat to the ofiicer with the gold swabs, and 
pausing only a moment, he moved to the other side of the cor- 
vette’s poop. 

“ It would be no more nor polite in him to tell us what his name 
is, arter all the questions he’s axed.” 

“ Don’t ye know, Mr. Binks,” broke in the captain, “ that the 
dignity of a man-of-war is sich that it wouldn’t be discreet to tell 
no more than that she has a cargo of cannon-balls, and going on a 
cruise anywheres ? which ye may believe is as much valuable infor- 
mation as we might get out of our own calabashes without asking 
a question.” 

“ You are allers right. Captain Blunt ; but I did not tax my mind 
to think when I spoke them remarks,” said Binks deferentially. 

The cruiser, however, seemed more communicative than the mate 
gave het credit for, and a moment after the ofiicer with the trumpet 
sung out. 

“ This is the United States ship Scourge^ from Port Royal, bound 
on a cruise. Please report us.” 

And again, after a few words apparently with the officer of the 
epaulets, the trumpet was raised to his lips, and he asked, “ Have 
you seen any vessels lately ? ” 

The skipper was on the point of answering the hail, when his 
mate said, ‘‘ Beg pardon. Captain Blunt, but Ben and me made out 
a fore-and-aft schooner airly this morning, with sweeps out, pulling 
in under the outermost headland there,” pointing with his horny 
finger as he spoke. 

“Nothing, sir, but a small schooner at daylight sweeping to 
windward.” 

“ What ? ” came back in a clear, quick note from the corvette. 

“ Small fore-and-af ter, sir, with sails down and sweeps out, close 
under the land.” 

In a moment two or three officers on the cruiser’s deck put their 
heads together, several glasses were directed toward the now dim 
mirage-like shadow of the island, and the next instant the sharp 
ring of a boatswain’s whistle was heard, followed by a gruff call 
of, “ Away there ! Ariels, away ! ” 


12 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Immediately a cluster of sailors, in white frocks and trousers 
and straw hats, sprung over the ship’s quarter to the davits ; and 
then, with a chirruping, surging pipe, a boat fell rapidly to the 
water. The falls were cast off, the cutter hauled up to the gang- 
way, and soon an officer stepped over the side and tiipped down to 
the boat. The white blades of the oars stood up on end in a double 
line, the boat pushed off, the oars fell with a single splash, and she 
steered for the brig. Descending into the gentle valley of the long 
swell, she would disappear for an instant, till nothing but the white 
hats and feather blades of the oars were visible ; and again rising 
on the crest, the water flashed off in foam from her bows, as she 
came dancing on. 

In a few minutes the coxswain cried, ‘‘ Way enough ! ” and throw- 
ing up his hand with the word “ Toss ! ” the cutter shot swiftly 
along-side j the boat-hooks of the bowmen brought her up with a 
sudden jar, and the next moment an officer, with an epaulet on his 
right shoulder and a sword by his side, stepped over the gangway. 
The skipper was there to receive him, to whom he touched his cap 
with his forefinger ; but as his eye glanced aft he saw a lady, and 
he gracefully removed his cap and bowed like a gentleman to her. 
He was a man of about eight-and-twenty, with a fine, manly, sailor- 
like figure and air, and with a pair of bright, determined gray eyes 
in his head that a rascal would not care to look into twice. 

“ I am the first lieutenant of the Scourge, sir,” he said, turning to 
the skipper, “ and if you will step this way I’ll have a few words 
with you.” 

This was said in a careless tone of command, but withal with 
frankness and civility. The captain led him aft toward the taf- 
frail, but in crossing the deck the little tot of a boy followed 
closely in his wake, and getting hold of the officer’s sword, which 
trailed along by its belt-straps on the deck, he got astride of it, 
and seized on to the coat-skirts of the wearer. The little tug he 
gave caused the officer to turn round, and with a cheerful smile and 
manner he snatched the urchin up in his arms, kissed him on both 
cheeks, and as he put him down again and detached his sword for 
him to play with, he exclaimed : 

“ What a glorious little reefer you’ll make one of these days ! 
Won’t you ? ” 

“ Oui ! out, mon papa ! ” said the little scamp, as he looked 
knowingly up in the officer’s face. 

Excuse my little boy, sir,” said his mother, who was in chase 


HIGH NOON 


13 


of him ; and then turning to the child, with a blush spreading over 
her lovely face, ‘‘ It is not your papa, Henri. Papa is in Kingston.” 

“Ah, madame, I love children. I had once a dear little fellow 
like this, but both he and his sweet mother are in heaven now. 
God bless them ! ” 

A flush of sadness tinged his cheeks, and he passed his hand 
rapidly across his eyes, as if the dream was too sad to dwell upon ; 
but changing his tone, while with one hand he patted the little fel- 
low’s head, he went on : “ Madame lives in Jamaica?” 

“ Oh, yes! I was born there, but my parents were destroyed by 
an earthquake when I was quite a little child, and this good cap- 
tain here carried my sister and myself to France soon after, where 
Monsieur — ” here she hesitated and blushed with pleasure — 
“where I married my husband, who is a planter on the island. 
Perhaps you may know M. Jules Piron ?” 

“ Piron ! ” said the navy man, with warmth. “Ay, madame, for 
as fine a fellow as ever planted sugar ! Know him ? Why, 
madame, it is only a week ago that a lot of us dined with him at 
his estate of Escondido — you know it, madame ? in the grand 
piazza which looks down the gorge. But he behaved very 
shabbily,” said the oflicer, as his face lighted up gayly, “ for he 
kept a spy-glass to his eye oftener than the wine-glass to his lips, in 
looking out seaward, and in talking of his wife and the little boy 
he had never seen.” 

“ Oh, monsieur, you make me so happy I ’’said the lovely woman, 
as, with sparkling eyes and heaving bosom, she cried, “ Banou ! 
Banou ! this gentleman has just seen your good master ! ” 

The black, who had been standing near and guarding every 
movement of his little charge, who was trailing the sword about 
the deck, immediately approaclied the oflicer, and, falling on his 
knees, seized his hand and drew it toward his face. 

“ Ah, madame, I see that kindness meets with a return as well 
from a dark as a fair skin,” said the oflicer, in a low tone, as he 
gently withdrew his hand from Banou’s grasp. 

“ But,” he continued, turning toward the skipper, as the clear 
sound of the cruiser’s bell struck his ear, “ I must not forget what 
I came for. You say, captain, that you saw a schooner at day- 
light, eh ? This way, if you please ” — as he raised his cap to Mme. 
Piron and walked over to the other side of the deck. “ What was 
she like ? ” 

“ She was reported to me by the mate,” replied Jacob Blunt. 


14 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


‘‘ Please send for him.” 

Oh, Mr.— a— ” 

‘‘ Binks, sir,” said that individual, touching his hat and making 
an awkward scrape at a bow. 

“ Well, Mr. Binks, did you clearly make out the vessel you saw 
this morning under the land ? ” 

Can’t say exactly, sir, as I did ; but Ben Brown there was on 
the fore-yard, and he got a good squint at her.” 

“ Ah ! can I see the man ? ” 

The mate straightway went forward, and, after a few pokes 
about the lee waist, Ben was roused out from under the jolly-boat 
and came rolling aft. 

“ You saw the schooner, eh ? ” said the lieutenant, as if he was 
in the habit of asking sharp questions and getting quick answers. 

Yes, sir,” said the squat seaman, as he hitched up his knife- 
belt, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and took off his 
cap. 

‘‘Where?” 

“ Here away, sir,” with a wave of his paw, “ just clear of that 
bluff foreland where the gap opens with the Blue Mountain.” 

“ How was she rigged ? ” 

“ Bare sticks, sir, not much of a bowsprit, and no sail spread. I 
see her first by the flash of her sweeps in the rising sun, as she was 
heading about sou’-sou’-east into the land.” 

“ Two masts, you say ? ” 

“ Ay, sir ; but I thought as ’ow there was a jigger-like yard a- 
sticking out over her starn, though I wasn’t sartin.” 

“ So ! ” said the lieutenant in a musing tone, and with rather a 
grave face and compressed lip ; “ that will do ; thank you, my 
man.” Then placing his hand on the skipper’s shoulder, he drew 
him to one side, out of ear-shot, and said : 

“ Captain Blunt, are you much acquainted in these latitudes ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, sir ; me and my old brig are regular traders here, 
from Bordeaux to Jamaica, and so home to England.” 

“ No treasure, I presume ? ” went on the officer, with a smile. 

“Why, lieutenant, none to speak of, p’rhaps ; just a handful of 
dollars and a guinea or two in the bag for a few sacks of sugar or 
coffee, or a pipe of rum, or sich like, on my own account.” 

“ Well, my friend, there is probably nothing to fear ; but if the 
breeze springs up keep as close to the corvette as you can, and I 
shall ask the captain to keep a lookout for you during the night. 


SUNSET 


15 


By the way,” the officer continued, in a low tone, as he moved 
toward the gangway, “in case anything should happen, you had 
better hoist a lantern at your peak or in the main rigging. We 
have sharp eyes for ugly customers, and one or two of them have 
been particularly troublesome of late hereabouts.” 

Turning for a moment to bid adieu to the fair lady passenger on 
the quarter-deck, and recovering his sword after a playful struggle 
with the youngster, he buckled it around his waist, and, stepping 
lightly over the side and into the boat, the oars fell 'with a single 
splash, and the cutter shot rapidly away toward the corvette. 


CHAPTER IV 

SUNSET 

“ Light is amid the gloomy canvas spreading, 

The moon is whitening the dusky sails, 

From the thick bank of clouds she masters, shedding 
The softest influence that o’er night prevails. 

Pale is she, like a young queen pale with splendor. 

Haunted with passionate thoughts too fond, too deep ; 

The very glory that she wears is tender, 

The very eyes that watch her beauty fain would weep.” 

Not a breath from the lungs of -^olus. The sun went down 
like a globe of fire ; but just as it touched the horizon it flattened 
out into an oval disk, and, sinking behind a dead, slate-colored 
cloud, shot up half a dozen broad rose and purple bands, expand- 
ing as they mounted heavenward, and then fading away in pearly 
tinted hues in the softening twilight until it mingled in the light of 
the half-moon nearly at the zenith. There lay the island, too, now 
all clear again, with the blue tops of the mountains marked in 
pure, distinct outline, and falling away from peak to peak on either 
hand, till the sea flashed up in sluggish, creamy foam at the base. 
The man-of-war birds came floating in from seaward, high up, like 
black mosquitoes, with their pointed wings wide spread and head- 
ing toward the land, but now with never a quiver to their silent 
pinions. A school of porpoises, too, broke water from the opposite 
direction, and, crossing and recrossing each other’s track, came 
leaping and puffing over the gentle swells until they struck the 
brig’s wake, when they wheeled around her bows, dashed off on a 
swift visit to the corvette, and then, closing up in watery phalanx. 


16 CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 

went gambolling, leaping, and breaking water again to windward. 
Presently, along the eastern horizon the banks of clouds, which 
had been lying dead and motionless all the sultry day, seemed to 
be imbued with life, and, separating in their fleecy masses, mounted 
up above the sea, and soon spread out, like a lady’s fan, in all 
directions. 

“ Ho ! ho ! ” shouted Captain Blunt, clapping his hands, “ what 
said I, Mme. Rosalie, when we saw the sun setting up his lee 
backstays a while ago ? A breeze, eh ? Come, Mr. Binks, be wide 
awake ! We shall be bowling off the knots before the watch is 
out.” 

The mate caught the enthusiasm of the skipper, and, jumping 
up on the break of the deck-cabin, he sung out : 

“ D’ye hear there, lads ? Give us a good pull of the top-sail 
halyards, and round in them starboard braces a bit ! That’s your 
sort ! Well, the head-yards ! That ’ll do with the main ! Up with 
the flying jib, and trim aft them starboard jib and stay-sail sheets ! 
There ! Belay all.” 

Meanwhile, the corvette, with her lofty dimity kissing the sky, 
caught the first light airs before the slightest ripple darkened the 
surface of the water ; and with her helm a-starboard, and her after- 
yards braced sharp up, she silently swung round on her heel, while 
the spanker came flat aft, like a sheet of white paper, and with the 
head-sails trimmed, she slowl}'’ moved athwart the stern of the brig. 
The sharp whistles of the boatswain and his mates, piping like 
goldfinches, were the only sounds that were heard ; and as the 
cruiser moved on in her course the declining moon cast a mellow 
light over the folds of her canvas, and, like a girl in bridal attire, 
she threw a graceful shadow over the smooth and swelling waters 
away off to windward. 

The sails of the brig, which had begun to swell out in easy, 
drooping lines, fell back again flat to the masts as the ship crossed 
her wake. But, as the corvette passed, the officer of the watch on 
the poop raised his cap to the lovely woman who was standing out 
in graceful relief on the upper cabin deck, with her little boy held 
up beside her in the sturdy arms of the black, and placing the 
trumpet to his lips, said in a distinct voice, as if addressing the 
skipper : 

“We shall go about at midnight. Remember the directions I 
gave you this morning. Bon voyage^ madameP^ He shook his 
trumpet playfully at the boy, who put out his chubby arms with 


SUNSET 


11 


delight to the speaker, and then hammered away with great glee 
on the crown of his bearer’s head. 

“ Thank you, sir,” said Captain Blunt, who was leaning over the 
rail ; and then turning to his mate, he added : 

“ Them Yankees, Mr. Binks, always treats a merchantman like 
gentlemen on the high-seas, and I never knew one on ’em to turn 
their backs on friends or foes. What a pity they ever cut adrift 
from the Old Country ! Howsoever, matey, it can’t be helped, and 
you had better up with the port studding-sails, hang on all the rags, 
and make the old drogher walk.” 

Now came the rippling breeze all at once over the sea, fluttering 
furtively for a minute or two, so as to make the top-sails of the 
brig swell out and then fall back in a tremulous shiver ; but again 
bulging forward in a full-breasted curve, the vessel felt the tug, 
and began to dash the spray from her blulf bows till it fell away 
beyond the lee cat-head in flying masses of foam. The studding- 
sail booms rolled out, the sailors busied themselves aloft in making 
tlie additional sail, and by-and-by the old brig floundered along, 
the bubbles gurgling out ahead in the ruffled water, tipping over 
astern as the crests broke on her quarter ; at times plunging her 
bows into the rolling swell, but coming up sturdil}^ again, and so 
on as before. 

Meanwhile the corvette had edged away in a parallel course with 
the brig, running past her at first as if she were at anchor, when 
she let her top-gallant-sails slide down to the caps, and, with the 
weather-clew of her main-sail triced up, held away with the brig a 
mile or more to windward. 

The moon was sinking well down in the west, and the clear, 
well defined crescent was occasionally obscured by the light fleecy 
clouds moving under the influence of the trade-wind, when, toward 
eight bells, the moon gave one pure white glimmer, throwing a 
rippling flood of light over the waves, and sunk below the horizon. 
Still the stars twinkled and the planets flamed out like young 
moons — masked at intervals by the darkening clouds as they swept 
overhead in heavy masses — and tinging the sea with shade, which 
would again break out in phosphorescent flashes as the waves 
caught the reflection. 

Now, Mme. Rosalie,” said the kind old skipper, it is nearly 
midnight ; take your last snooze in the old barky, and wake up 
bright and happy for Port Royal and — you know who, in the 
morning.” 


2 


18 


CAPTAIN BBAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


The charming woman had been watching, with soul-rapt gaze, 
the lofty hills of Jamica from the last blaze of the setting sun, and 
until the moon too had vanished and left only a dim blue haze over 
the island. She started as the captain spoke, gave a deep sigh, 
kissed her hand to the good old skipper, said ‘‘ Bon soir, mon 
and, with a smile, she entered her cabin. 

The black was seated within the partition of the apartment, near 
a small swinging cot, urging it gently to and fro, and watching 
over his little charge. 

“ Good-night, Banou,” she said, in patois French ; “ you may go 
to bed, and I will take care of my little boy.” 

The black grinned so as to show his double range of white teeth 
beneath the rays of the cabin lamp, and without a word he moved 
silently away. The lady stood for a few moments gazing lovingly 
at the sleeping child, and then, drawing the miniature from her 
bosom, she detached it with the chain from her neck, and after 
pressing it to her lips, she leaned softly over the cot and fastened it 
around the little sleeper. As light and zephyr-like as was the 
effort, it caused the little fellow to stir, and reaching out his tiny 
arms, while a baby smile played around the dimples of his cheeks, 
he clasped his motlier’s neck. 

Ah ! fond and devoted mother ! That was the last sweet 
infantile caress your child was ever destined to give you ! Treas- 
ure it up in joy and sorrow, in sunshine and gloom, for long, long 
years will pass before you press him to your heart again ! 


CHAPTER V 

DARKNESS 

The busy deck is hushed, no sounds are waking 
But the watch pacing silently and slow ; 

The waves against the sides incessant breaking. 

And rope and canvas swaying to and fro. 

The top-mast sail, it seems like some dim pinnacle 
Cresting a shadowy tower amid the air ; 

While red and fitful gleams come from the binnacle, 
The only light on board to guide us— where ? ” 


On went the Martha Blunt with no fears of danger near. The 
bell struck eight, the watch had been called, and the captain, tak- 
ing a satisfactory look all around the horizon, glanced at the com- 
pass, and with a slight yawn, said : 


DAEKNESS 


19 


“Well, Mr. Sinks, I believe I’ll turn in for a few hours ; keep 
the brig on her course, and at daylight call me. It will be time 
enough then to bend the cables, for I don’t think we shall want the 
anchors much afore noon to-morrow. Where’s the corvette ? ” 

“ There she is, sir, away off on the port beam. She made more 
sail a few niinutes ago, and now she appears to be edging off the 
wind and steering across our forefoot. I s’pose she’s enjoying 
of herself, sir, and exercisin’ the crowds of chaps they has on board 
of them craft.” 

“Well, good-night, matey” — pausing a moment, however, as the 
honest old skipper stepped down the companion-way, and half com- 
muning with himself, and then, with his head just above the slide, 
he added, “I say, Mr. Binks, there’s no need^ p’r’aps, but you may 
as well have a lantern alight, and bent on to the ensign halyards 
there under the taffrail, in case you want to signal the corvette. 
Ah, Banou ! that you, old nigger ? Good-night ! ” 

So Captain Blunt went slowly down below, and at the same time 
the black went aft, coiled himself down on the deck, and made a 
pillow of the brig’s ensign. 

Mr. Binks wriggled himself upon the weather-rail, where, with 
a short pipe in his mouth, he kicked his heels against the bulwarks, 
and, while the old brig plunged doggedly on, he indulged himself 
with a song, the air, however, being more like the growl of a bull- 
dog than a specimen of music : 

“ If lubberly landsmen, to gratitude strangers, 

Still curse their unfortunate stars, 

Why, what would they say did they try but the dangers 
Encounter’d by true-hearted tars ? 

If life’s vessel they put ’fore the wind, or they tack her, 

Or whether bound here or there. 

Give ’em sea-room, good-fellowship, grog, and tobakker. 

Well, then, damme if Jack cares where ! ” 

“ What d’ye think of that, Ben ? ” said Mr. Binks, as he finished 
his ditty, and sucked away on his pipe. 

“ Why, Mr. Mate,” replied Ben, as he gave the wheel a spoke or 
two to windward and glanced at the binnacle, “ the words is first- 
rate, but it seems to me your singing gear is a bit out o’ condition, 
and I thought you wos a-prayin’; but the fact is,” concluded Ben 
apologetically, “that whenever I hears grog and tobakker jined 
together, I likes to see them in my fist.” 

“ Oh ! you would, eh ? Well, shipmate, turn and turn about is 


20 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


fair play ; so here, just take a pull at the pipe, and I’ll step to 
the cuddy for the bottle, and we’ll have a little sniffler all around.” 

Saying this, Mr. Binks swung off the rail, handed Ben the pipe, 
and, after an absence of a few moments, he returned with a square 
case bottle and a pewter mug. 

“ Now, Ben,” said he, “ this ’ere is not a practice, as you know, I 
often is guilty of ; but you bein’ a keerful hand and a stiddy 
helmsman, and port here close aboard, I’ve no objections to take a 
toss with ye.” Then pouring out a moderate quantity of the fluid, 
the mate handed it to Ben, who, taking the pipe out of his mouth, 
and with one hand on the king spoke of the wheel and one eye at 
the compass-card, threw his head back and pitched the dram down 
his throat. 

“ My sarvice to ye,* sir,” said Ben, as he smacked his lips and 
then shut them tight together, lest a breath of the precious liquid 
might escape. “ A little of that stuff goes a great ways.” 

Mr. Binks liereupon measured himself off an allowance, and 
touching Ben on the shoulder, raised the pewter to his, lips. 
Before, however, draining the cup he tuned his pipes once more, 
and croaked forth in this strain : k 

“ While up the shrouds the sailor goes, 

Or ventures on the yard, 

The landsman, who no better knows. 

Believes his lot is hard. 

But Jack with smiles each danger meets ; 

Casts anchor, heaves the log. 

Trims all the sails, belays the sheets. 

And drinks his can of grog ! ” 

“ Here comes the corvette, sir ! ” broke in Ben, as he stood on 
tiptoe, holding on to the spokes of the wheel, and taking his 
eyes off the binnacle a moment to get a clear view over the rail. 
“ Here she comes, with her starboard tacks aboard, athwart our 
bow, and moving like an albatross ! ” 

The man-of-war had for an hour or more crept well to windward 
and then, wearing round, she came down close upon the wdnd 
under royals, and her three jibs and spanker as flat as boards. As 
she whirled on across the brig’s bow, a few cables’ length ahead, 
the sharp ring of the whistles was again heard, and the moment 
after the head-sails fluttered and shook in the wind, the sheets 
and blocks rattled, and with a clear order of “ Main-sail haul ! ” 
the after-yards swung round like magic, the sails filled, and 


DAKKNESS 


21 


without losing headway the head-yards were swung and she 
gathered away on the other tack. On she came, with the 
spray flying up into the weather leech of her foresail, the dark 
mazes of her rigging marked out in clear lines against her white 
canvas, and the watch noiselessly coiling up the ropes on her decks. 
As she pushed her sharp snout througli the water, and grazed along 
the brig’s lee quarter, an officer on the poop gave a rapid and 
searching glance around, peered sharply along the brig’s deck, 
waved his trumpet to the mate, and resumed his rapid tramp to wind- 
ward. In ten minutes after she had passed the brig’s wake nothing 
was seen of her save a dark, dim outline, a light halo reflected on 
the water from her white streak, and an occasional luminous flash 
of foam as it bounded away from her lean bows. 

Half an hour went by. The mate was sitting on the weather- 
rail droning out an old sea song to himself, and the four or five 
men of the watch were dozing away along the bulwarks. Presently 
however, Ben, the helmsman, happened to let his eyes wander away 
from the compass-card for a moment, as he steadied the wheel by his 
legs and bit a quid from his plug of niggerhead to last him to suck 
for the remainder of the watch, when, glancing beneath the bulg- 
ing folds of the lee clew of the main -sail, he clapped both hands 
again on the steering spokes, and shouted : 

‘‘ Mr. Mate, here’s a sail close under our lee beam ! ” 

“ Where ? ” said Binks. But, before he had fairly time to run 
to the other side of the vessel and take a look for himself, a quick 
rattle of oars was heard as a boat grated against the brig’s side, 
and, before you could think, a swarm of fellows started up like so 
many shadows above the rail. In five seconds they had jumped on 
the deck, Ben fell like a bullock from a blow from the butt-end of 
a pistol, the helm was jammed hard down, the lee braces let fly, and, 
as the old brig gave a lurching yaw in bringing her nose to wind- 
ward, the weather leeches shivered violently in the wind, and, 
taken flat aback, the studding-sail booms snapped short off at the 
irons, and, with the sails, fell slamming and thumping below. 

Meanwhile the mate had barely time to spring to the companion- 
way and sing out, “ We’re boarded by pirates. Captain Blunt ! ” 
when he, too, received an ugly overhand lick from a cutlass on his 
skull, and went senseless and bleeding down the hatchway like a 
scuttle of coals. 

As the mate pitched head foremost down the companion-ladder 
two of the pirates jumped after him, and; dealing him another cruel 


22 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


stab with a knife deep into the back, they passed on into the lower 
cabin. There was a brief struggle, the sound of voices mingled 
with curses and threats, and then all quiet again. 

At the first noise, however, the black Banou sprang to his feet, 
and, as he caught a glimpse of the fellows swarming over the side 
he snatched hold of tlie ensign halyards where the signal lantern 
had been bent on, and in an instant it was dancing away up to the 
galf, shrouded from view to leeward of the vessel by the spread of 
the spanker. In another moment the black leaped to the deck- 
cabin and darted through the door. But in less time than it has 
taken to tell it the Martha Blunt had changed hands. 

There on the quarter-deck stood in groups some sixteen bare- 
footed villains, in coarse striped gingham shirts, loose trousers, and 
skull-caps, and all with glittering naked knives or cutlasses, and 
pistols in their belts and hands. In the midst of this cluster of 
swarthy wretches, near the companion-way, stood a burly, square- 
built ruffian, with a pistol in his right hand, and his dexter paw 
pushing up a brown straw hat as he ran his fingers across his drip- 
ping forehead and a tangled mass of carroty, unshorn locks. There 
was a wisp of red silk kerchief tied in a single knot around his 
bare bull neck ; the shirt was thrown back, and exposed a tawny, 
hairy chest, as a ray of light flashed up from the binnacle. He 
looked — as indeed he was — the lowest type of a sailor scoundrel. 
His companions were of lighter build, and their dress, complexion, 
and manner — to say nothing of their black hair and rings in 
their ears — indicated a birth and breeding in other and hotter 
climates. 

“Well, my lads,” said the big fellow, who seemed to be in com- 
mand, “ the barky is ours, and we’ve cheated that infarnal cruiser 
handsomely. Go forward, Pedro, and gag them lubbers, and then 
tell the boys to trim aft them jib-sheets, and round in them after- 
braces, some of you, so we can keep way with the schooner and 
take things easy.” 

Here he laughed in a husky, spirituous, low chuckle, and then 
went on : “This will make up for lost time, amigos! Christo! 
there may be some ounces on board. But who’s left in the boat, 
Gomez?” This was addressed to a bow-legged, beetle-browed 
individual, with a hare lip, which kept his face in a perpetual and 
skeleton-like grin, who hissed out from between his decayed front 
tusks : 

El Doctor, sehor, con tres de nosotros!^ 


DAEKNESS 


23 


“ JBueno ! all right ; three of the chaps will do to look out for 
her ; but tell the doctor to drop the boat astern, and veer him a 
rope from the gangway. There ! that’s well with the braces ! 
Keep her off a point ; so — that ’ll do.” 

As the orders were promptly obeyed, and the crew of the brig 
gagged, and the vessel surged slowly on her course, the same 
speaker turned to his men and said : 

“ Now, my hearties ! let’s have an overhaul of the skipper. 
Hand him up here, will ye? or, never mind,” he added, “I’ll just 
step down and have a growl with him myself.” 

In pursuance of his expressed purpose, the stout ruffian slued 
himself round, took a sweep about the horizon, then sticking his 
pistol in its belt, he slowly descended the ladder, gave the wounded 
and dying mate a kick, and, with a hoarse laugh, entered the cabin. 

There, on a small sofa abaft, between the two stern air-ports, sat 
Captain Blunt. Blood was trickling down in heavy drops from 
a lacerated bruise on his forehead ; but, notwithstanding the swell- 
ing and pain of the wound, his features were calm, stern, and honest. 
On either side of him sat as villanous a brace of mongrel Portuguese 
or Spaniards as ever infested the high seas ; and his arms were 
pinioned by a stout cord to the bolt above the transom. 

“ My sarvice to j^'oti, sir ! ” said the leader of the gang, with a 
devilish smile of derision, as he stuck his arms akimbo and squirted 
some tobacco-juice from his filthy mouth across the cabin table at 
the pinioned prisoner. “ I s’pose you know by this time that 
you’re a lawful prize, captured by an independent constable of the 
West Indies, notwithstandin’ ye had sich safe escort and convoy 
all the arternoon ? ” 

Here he chuckled, squirted more juice over the table, then 
dropped down on a sea-chest cleated to the deck, took off his hat, 
and scratched his yellowish-red hair. The poor captain said not a 
word, but shook a large clot of blood from his brow. 

“Well, now, ray old hearty, the first thing for you to do is to 
poke out your manifest, and any other little matters of vallew ye 
may have stowed away ; and be quick, mind ye, for you haven’t 
much time to sail in this ’ere craft. Howsoever, I s’pose ye can 
swim ? ” 

“ You’ll find the manifest and the ship’s papers there, inside that 
instrument-box ; and all the money in the vessel is in that locker ; 
and I trust in Heaven it may burn your hands to cinders, you 
devils ! ” 


24 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


‘‘ Ho ! smash my brains ! keep a stopper on your jaw, or I’ll 
squeeze your dead carcass through that ’ere starn-port.” 

The fellow rose as he spoke, and, stepping up to the narrow state- 
cabin near by, jerked open the upper drawer of a small bureau 
affair, and pulling out a canvas bag, sealed at the mouth, tossed it 
on to the cabin table. Tlie coin fell with the heavy, dead sound pe- 
culiar to gold; and the ruffian, after taking it up again and weighing 
it tenderly, growled out, ‘‘ This chink will do for a j^apper, at any 
rate ! So now let’s have a peep at what the cargo consists on.” 

Then stepping a second time to the berth, he gave a kick to 
the instrument-box ; the lid flew off, and diving in his fist he drew 
out a bundle of papers. Once more seating himself at the table 
beneath the swinging lamp, he clumsily undid the papers and 
spread them before him. 

“ What a blessed thing is edication,” muttered he to himself, 
“and what a power o’ knowledge reading ’riting does for a man ! ” 
Putting his fat stumpy finger on each line of the manuscript as he 
slowly began : “ ‘ Man-i-fest of brig Martha Blunt — Ja-cob Blunt, 
master ; ’ ” here he paused, and, squirting more tobacco-juice over 
at the skipper, as if to attract his attention, he suddenly ejaculated, 
“ Hark ye. Master Blunt, what was the name of that man-o’-war 
vessel as was l3dn’ b}^ you this morning ? ” 

“ The Scourge , replied the skipper faintly, as he shook another 
large drop of blood from his brow. 

“The what? T\iQ Scourge ! That Yankee snake ! Smash my 
brains ! H’^^e know that that ship has been a-hangin’ about the 

north side of Cuba for ever so long, interruptin’ our trade ? And 
you, an Englishman, to go and ax him to purtect ye ! Take that ! ” 

Here he snatched a pistol from his sash, and, taking aim full at 
the skipper’s breast, pulled the trigger. Fortunately^ the weapon 
snapped and did not explode. The ruffian held it a moment in his 
hand, and then letting it rest upon the table, he said, with a horri- 
ble imprecation : 

“ Ye see you wos not born to be shot ; but we’ll see what salt 
water will do for ye by-and-by.” 

Taking out his knife at the conclusion of this speech, he picked 
the flint of his pistol, opened the pan, shook the priming, and then 
shoved the weapon back in his belt. The mention of the Scourge, 
however, had evidently caused him some trepidation, for when he 
resumed the perusal of the manifest it was in a hurried, agitated 
sort of way, and not at all at his ease. 


DARKNESS 


25 


Smoothing the papers again before him, he went on, making run- 
ning commentaries as he read : ‘‘ ‘ Eighty-six cases of silks ’ — light, 
and easily stowed away ; ‘ twenty-nine tons bar-iron ; sixty-four 
sugar-kettles ’ — it will help to sink the brig ; ‘ forty pipes of Bor- 
deaux ; two hundred baskets champagne ; three hundred and 
fifty boxes of claret ’ — sour stuff, I warrant you ; ‘ two casks of 

Cognac brandy ’ But I say, you. Blunt,” said the fellow, look- 

ing up, “ where’s your own private bottle ? It’s thirsty work 
spellin’ out all this ’ritin’, and my mouth’s as dry as a land-crab’s 
claws. Howsoever,” he continued, as he caught the glance of 
satisfaction which came over the swarthy faces of his companions 
beside the captain, “ wait a bit, and we’ll punch a hole in a fresh 
barrel presently.” 

Having run through the manifest, he opened another paper and 
exclaimed, “Halloa! what have we here? ‘List of passengers — 

Mme. Rosalie Piron and ’ Ho 1 that’s a French piece, I 

knows by the name. Where is she ? Hasn’t died on the v’yage, 
has she ? I)’ye hear there, ye infarnal Blunt ? ” 

The captain’s face was troubled, and his head dropped down on 
his breast without repl^dng ; but one of the scoundrels at his side 
struck him a brutal blow with the back of his knife-hilt on the 
mouth, and jerking up, he said, with an effort : 

“ Yes, we have a female passenger on board, with a helpless 
child ; but I pray you, in God’s name, to leave the innocent woman 
in peace. You’ve robbed and ruined me and my poor old wife — 
turn me adrift if you like, drown or hang me, but don’t harm the 
poor lady.” 

The tears blinded him as he spoke and mingled with the bloody 
stream which trickled down his cheeks. The ruffian’s ugly face 
and blood-shot eyes lighted up with a devilish and sinister satis- 
faction as the skipper began his appeal ; but before he had well 
finished speaking he broke in : 

“ Avast your jaw ! will ye ? You’ll have enough to look out 
for your own gullet, my lad, without mindin’ anybody else’s ; so 
turn to and say your prayers afore eight bells is struck, because 
there’s sharks off Jamaiky.” 

Then addressing his own scoundrelly myrmidons, he exclaimed, 
“ Look out sharp for that old chap, my lads, while I goes to sarch 
for the woman passenger ! ” As he turned, however, to leave the 
cabin one of his subordinates began to rummage about in a locker, 
when the burly brute said, “ Tonio, don’t get to drinkin’ too airly. 


26 CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE " 

boy, for ye know it’s agin the law till the prize is snug in harbor, 
or sunk, as the case may be.” 

“ Sij senor^'' replied the man with a nod and a grin, and he 
resumed his seat again ; but no sooner had their leader left the 
cabin than a bottle and glasses were placed upon the table, and they 
fell to with a will, complimenting the bound and wounded prisoner 
by pitching the last drops from their tumblers into his face. 


CHAPTER VI 

DANGER 

“ What tale do the roaring ocean 

And the night wind, bleak and wild, 

As they beat at the crazy casement, 

Tell to that little child ? 

And why do the roaring ocean 
And the night wind, wild and bleak. 

As they beat at the heart of the mother. 

Drive the color from her cheek ? ” 

In all this time so little noise had been made that even the watch 
below, in the brig’s forecastle, were snoozing away without a dream 
of danger ; though, had one of them shown his nose above the fore- 
peak, he would have either been knocked down and murdered like 
the mate, or, with a gag in his jaws, been hurled overboard. When 
the leader of the pirates stepped again on deck he said to his 
companions, who were still clustered around the companion-way : 

“ Well, my boys, we have ’arned a good prize — a fine cargo of 
the real stuff — silks, wines, and what not, besides a few of the 
shiners ! ” Here he jingled the bag of gold and dollars in his paws, 
and then threw it, with an easy, indifferent toss, on to the slide of 
the compa^ion-wa3^ 

♦“What think ye, lads?” he continued, in a hoarse whisper. 
“ There’s a petticoat aboard ! and, as sure as my name’s Bill Gibbs, 
here goes for a look ; for there’s nothing like lamplight for the 
lovely creeturs ! ” 

As he slued round on his bare feet to approach the entrance to 
the deck-cabin a move was made in the same direction by two or 
three of the wretches of his band ; but shoving them roughly back 
with his heavy fist, and clapping a hand to his belt, he said, in a 
threatening tone : 

“None o’ that, my souls ! I takes the first look myself, and if I 


DANGER 


27 


think her beauty ’ll suit the chief, why — I shall be able to judge, 
ye know, whether she’ll go furder on the cruise or swim ashore 
with the rest of the lubbers at daylight to Jamaiky. Keep your 
eye on the schooner, Pedro, and don’t make no more sail. D’j^e 
hear ?” 

“ Ay, ay ! AS'^, senor ! ” quoth that worthy, as he and his followers 
fell sulkily back. It took but three strides for Mr. Bill Gibbs to 
reach the cabin door, when, finding it hard to open, after several 
trials at the knob, he placed his burly shoulder against the edge of 
the panel- work, and throwing his powerful weight upon it, the door 
yielded with a snap of the lock, and he pitched forward full length 
upon the cabin floor. The noise startled the lady within, and 
speaking as if half asleep, she called : 

‘‘ Banou ! Banou ! what is the matter ? ” 

“ MonDieUy madame ! we are prisoners in the hands of pirates ! ” 

Before more words were uttered Mr. Bill Gibbs, who by this time 
had regained his feet, while giving vent to a volley of blasphemous 
curses, roared out as he beheld the black, “Ho ! nigger passengers, 
hay ? A mounseer of color, as I’m a Christian ! I say, cucumber 
shins, is that ’ere woman as is talkin’ as black as you be ? ” 

He was not left long in doubt concerning the color of the person 
he alluded to, for at the instant the state-room door flew open, and 
the lovely woman, in her loose night-dress and hair streaming in 
brown, heavy silken tresses over her fair neck and shoulders, with 
a pale and terror-stricken face, stood before him. Speechless with 
agony, she gazed at the coarse rulflan, who had, at the moment, 
reached the swinging cot which held the little boy, and while he 
was in the act of looking at the sleeping child, the mother uttered 
a fearful cry, and the boy awoke. 

“ Sarvice, madam ; don’t be scared ; come and take the little 
chap ! I ain’t goin’ to hurt him — that is, if it be a him.” 

The frightened mother, spellbound at first, needed no second 
bidding, and, forgetful of her dishevelled dress, sprung forward, 
and with outstretched arms, bare to the shoulder, was about to 
snatch her child. The pirate, however, with his red eyes gleaming 
with unholy fire, threw his great arm around the lovely woman’s 
waist, and, with a hoarse, fiendish chuckle of triumph, attempted to 
draw her toward him. But, quick as lightning, two black, sinewy 
paws clutched him with such a steel-like grip about the throat that 
his sacrilegious arm dropped by his side, and he was hurled violently 
back against the cabin bulkhead. Then, standing before him, the 


28 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


negro glared like an angry lion roused from his lair as he looked 
round enquiringly at his mistress. 

“ Ho ! ” sputtered the ruffian, as he pulled a pistol from his belt 
— “ ho ! you mean fight, do ye ? ” 

“ Banou ! mon pauvre Banou / ” screamed the terrified woman. 
“ Yield ! Oh, sir, spare him ! Don’t harm us, and we will give 
you all we possess ! ” 

The burly scoundrel hesitated a moment, and balanced the 
cocked pistol in his hand, as if undecided whether to blow the 
black’s brains out on the spot where he stood ; and then, shoving 
the weapon back in his sash, and keeping a wary eye on his assail- 
ant, he exclaimed in an angry tone : 

“Well, come here, then, my deary, and give us a kiss for this 
nigger’s bad manners.” 

Moving forward as he spoke, he caught up the little boy from 
the cot, tore the gold chain and locket from his neck, which he 
thrust into his pocket, and shook him roughly at arm’s-length, in 
hopes, perhaps, of enticing the tender mother within his merciless 
grasp. But again the black interposed his heavy frame before his 
mistress. 

“ What ! at it again, are ye ? Well, then,” — fumbling with his 
left hand for his pistol, — “ say your prayers, ye imp of darkness.” 

The black seemed, however, in no mood for praying, and, putting 
forth his slabs of arms like the paws of an alligator, he tried to 
grapple his foe by the throat. The cries of the mother now min- 
gled with those of the child as he put out his little arms to shield 
his black protector. The ruffian, foiled in his purpose, with baffled 
rage evaded the negro by stepping to one side, and as he did so he 
hurled the helpless child with great force from him. The large 
cabin windows at the stern were open to let in the breeze, and as 
the brig sunk slowly down with her counter to the following waves, 
and gurgled up as the sea eddied and surged around the rudder, the 
faint, plaintive cry of the little boy arose above the seething waters 
— a light splash followed — and the mother had lost her child ! 

“ Oh, monster ! ” cried the heart-broken woman. “ Oh, my boy ! 
my boy ! May Heaven curse you forever ! ” as she sunk down 
senseless on the deck. 

The awful howl of vengeance which burst from the deep lungs 
of Banou came simultaneously with the report of the pirate’s pis- 
tol, the bullet from which struck the black hard in the left shoulder; 
but, putting out for the third time his sinewy arms, and this time 


DANGER 


29 


with an iron grip that only left the ruffian time to yell with a stifled 
curse for help, he was hurled headlong, smashing through the lat- 
ticed cabin door, and fell stunned upon the outer deck. In an 
instant half a dozen pistol balls whistled around the negro’s head, 
and the knives of the pirates flashed from their sashes as they 
rushed forward to bury the blades in his body ; but, leaping to one 
side, and while two more bullets were driven into him, he seized an 
iron-shod pump-brake from the bulwarks, and, with a mighty 
bound, whirled it once with the rapidity of thought high above his 
head, and brought it down on the leg of his prostrate foe. Such 
was the force of the blow that it smashed both bones, and drove 
the white splinters through the brute’s trousers, where they gleamed 
out red and bloody by the light of the binnacle lamp. Even then, 
wounded, and the blood flowing from several places, and though 
almost encircled in the grasp of the scoundrels, Banou made good 
his retreat to the cabin, and planted his powerful body firmly 
against the door. 

With a volley of polyglot curses and yells in all languages, two 
or three of the pirates stopped to raise their fallen leader, while 
the others, leaving the wheel and vessel to herself, rushed in pur- 
suit of the black. Scarcely, however, had they made a step when 
their ears were saluted by a stunning crash from a heavy cannon, 
and the peculiar humming sound of a round shot as it flew just 
above their heads between the brig’s masts. 

There, within half a cable’s length to windward, loomed up the 
dark hull of a large ship. The crew were evidently at quarters, with 
the battle lanterns lit and gleaming in the ports, while the rays 
shot up the black rigging and top-hamper, and spread out over the 
sails in fitful flashes as she slowly forged abreast the brig, with her 
main -top-sail to the mast. For a minute not a sound was heard, 
though the decks were full of men, some with their heads poked 
out of the open ports beside the guns, or swarming along over the 
-vlee hammock nettings and about the quarter-boats ; but the next 
instant there came, in a voice of thunder, through the trumpet: 

Wliat’s the matter on board that brig ?” 

There was no answer for a few seconds, until a choking voice, as 
if with a pump-bolt athwart the speaker’s mouth, mumbled out : 

« We’re captured by pi ” 

A dull, heavy blow cut short these words ; and, though the reply 
to the hail could hardly have been heard on board the ship, yet, as 
if divining the true state of the case, loud, clear orders were given : 


30 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


‘‘ Away, there, third and fourth cutters ! away ! Spring, men ! ” 

Then came the surging noise of the whistles as the falls dropped 
the boats from the davits ; then the men, leaping down into cut- 
ters — silently and quick — no sound save the clash of a cutlass or 
the rattle of an oar-blade as they took their places and shoved off. 
Again an order through the trumpet : 

“ Clear away the starboard battery ! Load with grape ! Sail 
trimmers ! stations for wearing ship ! Hard up the helm ! Fill 
away the main -yard ! ” 

The Scourge had by this time forged ahead of the brig, her 
sails aback or shivering, as she came up and fell off from the wind, 
and the boats dancing with full crews toward her. No sooner, 
however, had the presence of the unwelcome stranger been made 
known on board the brig than the pirates seemed seized with a 
panic, and, without a second thought, they scudded to leeward, 
where their boat had been hauled alongside, and, forgetful or in- 
different of the fate of their companions below, though dragging 
the while their maimed comrade to the rail, they lowered him into 
the boat, jumped in themselves, and pulled away with all their 
strength toward the schooner near. They were not, however, a 
moment too soon ; for as the last of the band disappeared their 
places were supplied by a crowd of nimble sailors to windward, 
headed by an officer with his sword between his teeth as he swung 
over the bulwarks. The first sound which greeted the new- 
comers was from below, and from the throat of the honest skipper. 
Down the open companion-way leaped the officer, with half a 
dozen stout, eager sailors at his heels, and dashed right into the 
lower cabin. There was the brave old skipper, with but one 
arm free, shielding himself and struggling, faint and well-nigh 
exhausted, from the knives of the drunken brace of rascals who 
had been left to guard him. A pistol in the hands of one of this 
pair was pointed with an unsteady aim at the officer as he entered, 
but the ball stuck the empty rum-bottle on the table and fiew wide 
of its mark ; and before the smoke of the powder had cleared away 
a sword and cutlass had passed through and through both their 
bodies, and they fell dead upon the cabin floor. 

While Captain Blunt found breath to give a rapid explanation of 
the trouble, and while the brig was once more got under control 
and the wounded cared for, we will take a look at the man-of-war 
and the part she bore in the business. 

At the first sound of the warning gun from the cruiser the 


DANGER 


31 


schooner began to show life ; and, drawing her head-sheets, she 
wore short round on her heel, with every thing ready to run up her 
fore and aft sails, and a stay-tackle likewise rove and hanging over 
the low gunwale to hook on to the boat and hoist it in the moment 
it came alongside. Meanwhile the Scourge had shot ahead of the 
brig, and, wearing round her fore-foot, with her starboard tacks on 
board, she emerged out beyond, like a hound just slipped from the 
leash. As she cleared the brig the schooner lay with bare masts 
about three cables’ length to windward, and the rattle of oars told 
that her boat had just scraped alongside. At that moment a clear, 
determined voice shouted through the trumpet: 

“ Level your guns ! Take good aim ! Fire ! ” 

A brilliant series of sheets of flame burst forth from the cor- 
vette’s battery, lighting up the water and jet-black wales, and away 
aloft to the great towering maze of rigging and sails to the trucks, 
with the topmen clustering to windward, and their very eyes and 
teeth lit up in the glare ; then, too, the crews of the guns, in their 
trim frocks and trousers ; the marines on the top-gallant forecastle, 
with their firelocks and white cross-belts; and abaft a knot of offi- 
cers on the poop, with night-glasses to their eyes, all standing out 
as clear as day in the sudden flashes from the cannon. Then fol- 
lowed the concussive roar, and the next instant you could hear the 
hurtling rush of the iron hail as it flew singly or in bunches through 
the air, or skipped in its deadly flight from wave to wave, until it 
went crashing into the pirate’s boat, slapping with heavy thumps 
against the schooner’s side or furrowing along her decks ; while a 
shower of white splinters flew high over her low rail, and told how 
well the iron had done its bidding. Then, with many a groan and 
imprecation, the shattered and sinking boat was cut adrift, and a 
moment after the sails of the vessel were spread, the sheets hauled 
flat aft, and, taking the breeze, she heeled over till her lee rail was 
all awash, and away she walked, right up to windward. 

But again came the clear, commanding tones on board the cruiser, 
mingled with the jumping of the crew and ramming home the 
charges in the guns : 

‘‘ Load ! round shot ! Run out ! One point abaft the beam ! 
Fire as you bring the schooner to bear ! ” 

Out belched the red flames ; the heavy globes of iron, like so 
many black peas in daylight, sung their deadly note as they darted 
on their way, and the corvette gave a little heel to leeward as the 
shock of the explosion was felt. One shot dropped within fifty 


32 


CAPTAIN BBAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


yards of tlie low hull of the schooner, bounded just clear of her after 
deck, knocked off the head and shoulder of a man at the tiller, and 
then went skipping away over the water like a black foot-ball. 
Another messenger cut off the schooner’s delicate fore-top-mast as 
clean as a bit of glass, bringing down the gaff’ -top -sail, and, what 
was equally pleasant, the fellow who was setting it — pitching him 
over and over like a wheel, until he fell, a bruised and lifeless lump 
of jelly, on the oak bitts at the fore-mast. Before, however, they 
were treated to another of these metallic doses the pirates had got 
their craft in splendid trim ; and with every stitch of her canvas 
spread, and tugging and straining, she rushed on with the heels of 
a race-horse, within three points of the wind. The Scourge, too, 
was now close-hauled, her yards braced as fine as needles, and 
crowded with every inch of sail that would draw ; while every ten 
minutes or so she would let slip tw^o or more guns from a division 
at the chase. But the uncertain gloom of starlight, and the darken- 
ing effect of the passing trade-clouds, made the little vessel a very 
difiicult object to see ; and, though one of the last balls struck her 
on the narrow deck, passed through that and the water- waj^s, and 
out to windward, spoiling two of her timbers, and no end of plank- 
ing, yet this was the last damage she received. Her crew, also, 
had got as well as could be out of harm’s way, — ^both the sound and 
wounded, — and w'ere lying quietly as possible deep down in the 
vessel’s run. When daylight broke, the breeze began to slacken, 
but she was by this time hull down from the corvette, a long way 
beyond the reach of her long eighteens in the bow-ports, and eat- 
ing her way to windward, with no chance of being taken. 

“ It’s no use,” said the captain of the corvette to his first lieu- 
tenant, as the}?- stood watching the receding chase. “ We may as 
well give it up ; she has the heels of us in this light wind, and will 
soon be out of sight. I think, however,” continued the captain, 
with a smile, “ that he’ll remember the Scourge when he meets her 
again. This is the second time we have chased that fellow ; and 
this heat, by the way the splinters fiew, we must have peppered the 
skin off his back.” 

Shutting up the joints of the spy-glass which he held in his hand, 
he took hold of the man-ropes of the poop-ladder, and as he put his 
feet on the steps he said : 

You can go about, Mr, Cleveland, and run down to the brig.” 


THE MEETING AND MOURNING 


33 


CHAPTER VII 

THE MEETING AND MOURNING 

“ Moan 1 moan, ye dying gales 1 
The saddest of your tales 
Is not BO sad as life ! 

Nor have you e’er began 
A theme so wild as man, 

Or with such sorrow rife. 

“ Then, when the gale is sighing. 

And when the leaves are dying, 

And when the song is o’er. 

Oh 1 let us think of those 
Whose lives are lost in woes— 

Whose cup of grief runs o’er 1 ” 

On the afternoon following the night when the foregoing events 
transpired the Martha Blunt sailed slowly along the sandy tongue 
of land which separates Port Royal from Kingston, and dropped 
anchor in the harbor. As the cable rumbled out with a grating 
sound through the hawse-hole, and the crew aloft were furling the 
sails, a large, gayly painted barge, pulled by a dozen blacks, shaded 
by a striped awning, shot swiftly alongside. Jabbering were those 
darkies, and clapping their hands, and shouting joj^ously. A rope 
was immediately thrown from the gangway of the brig, and a tall, 
handsome man, with a broad Panama hat, loose white jacket and 
trousers, sprung with a bound up the side and leaped on deck. 

Captain Blunt stood there to receive him. A broad white band- 
age was passed around his head, and the tears trickled slowly down 
his bronzed and honest cheeks. Just beyond him, under the shade 
of the awning, lay Banou, stretched out at full length on a mat- 
tress ; while Ben, the helmsman, was kneeling beside him, fanning 
his hot and fevered face with his tarpaulin. A yard or two beyond, 
on a broad plank resting on trestles, lay the mate, Mr. Binks, cold 
and rigid in the grasp of Death, with the union-jack folded modestly 
over his corpse. The black breathed heavily and in pain ; but 
when he caught sight of the gentleman as he stepped on deck, a 
deathly blue pallor came over his countenance, and, closing his 
eyes, the hot salt tears started in large drops from the lids. 

3 


34 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“ My God ! captain,” said the gentleman, with a bewildering 
stare, ‘‘ what’s all this ? What has happened ? ” 

The old skipper merely made a motion with his hand toward the 
cabin, and, leaning painfully against the rail, wept like a child. 
The gentleman’s blood forsook his cheeks, and, with his knees 
knocking together, he staggered like a drunken man toward the 
cabin door. A few minutes later he emerged, bearing in his arms 
the sobbing, drooping form of his wife. Starting from his close 
embrace for a moment as he bore her to the gangway, she gave 
one shuddering, terrified, searching gaze over the blue water to 
seaward, and then, with a wailing cry of agony that would have 
shaken the hardest heart, she fell sobbing again into her husband’s 
arms. 

The voices and joyous shrieks of the negroes in the barge along- 
side subsided into low moaning groans ; four or five came up, and 
carefully lowered Banou down ; then all got into the boat, and she 
moved mournfully away toward the shore. 


CHAPTER VIII 

CAPTAIN BRAND AT HOME 

“ Prom his brimstone bed at break of day, 

A-walking the Devil is gone, 

To visit his snug little farm, the Earth, 

And see how his stock goes on.” 

Upon a broad, flat rocky ledge, near a small, landlocked, narrow 
inlet of one of the clustering Twelve League Keys on the south 
side of Cuba, stood a red-tiled stone building, with a spacious veranda 
in front, covered by plaited matting and canvas curtains triced 
up all around. The back and one side of the building rested 
against a craggy eminence which overlooked the sea on both sides 
of the island, and commanded a wide sweep of reef and blue water 
beyond. A few clumps of cocoa-nut-trees and dwarf palms, with 
bare, gaunt stems and tufted tops, stood out here and there along 
the rocky slopes, while lesser vegetation of cactus and man- 
grove bushes were scattered thickly over the island, cropping out 
with jagged edges of rock down to the sandy beaches of the sea- 
shore. A deep, narrow inlet of blue water lay pure and still near 
the base of the rocky height, where, too, was a shelving curve of 
white sand, sprinkled about by a few mat sheds, while on the 


CAPTAIN BRAND AT HOME 


35 


other side the rocks rose to an elevation of a hundred and fifty 
feet, forming a precipitous wall to the water. The inlet here took a 
sharp turn, scooped out in a secluded basin, and then, narrowing to 
less than forty yards in width, it wound and twisted for a good mile 
in a thin blue channel to the open sea. Half that distance farther 
out was a roaring ledge of white breakers, where the long swell 
came hammering on it, bursting up in the air in brightish green 
masses, and then tumbling over the reef and bubbling smoothly on 
toward the shore. On a level with the water no channel could be 
discerned through the ledge ; but, looking down from the heights 
around the inlet, a narrow blue gate-way was marked out, skirted 
on the surface by frothy crests of dead foam, and near where flocks 
of cormorants and gulls were riding placidly on the inner side 
of the ledge. The island itself was about two miles broad and 
seven long ; and about midway of its width the inlet formed a 
forked strait, one branch finding its way to the north, between 
a low succession of sandy hummocks, where the water was too 
shallow to float a duck, and the other finding an outlet, scarcely 
a biscuit-toss wide, between two bluff rocks. With the trade- 
wind this passage was safe and accessible ; but on the change of 
the moon, with a breeze and swell from the south, the sea came 
bowling in in boiling eddies and whirlpools, and it required a nerve 
of iron to attempt an entrance. Just within this narrow mouth, on 
a flat, bevelled ledge of rock but a few feet above the water, was a 
small battery of two long eighteen-pounders, and two twenty-four- 
pounder carronades mounted on slides and trucks, with platforms 
laid on a bed of sand. Near by, beneath a low shed of tiles and loose 
stones, was a pile of round shot, nicely blacked, and some stands of 
grape and canister in canvas bags and cases, together with a large 
copper magazine of cartridges. Seated a little way off on a low stool 
was a dingy Spaniard, with a telescope laid across his knees, which 
every little while he would raise to his eye and take a steady glance 
around the horizon to seaward. At other times he would roll and 
light a paper cigar, murmuring some low ditty to himself as he sent 
the smoke in volumes through his nose. A small brass bell hung 
beside the shed near the battery, together with a telegraphic card, 
which was connected by a wire strung on low posts, or hooked from 
rock to rock to the stone building away up at the basin. To return, 
however, to the building. The veranda rested on square rough 
masonry full twenty feet from the ground, which was loop-holed 
for musketry, and with but one narrow slip of a door-way that fell 


36 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


like a portcullis, banded and strapped with bars and studs of 
wrought iron. Within this stone enclosure was a large and roomy 
vault, half filled with cases, barrels, and packages, and at the upper 
angle was a narrow subterranean vaulted passage, barred also by 
an iron-bound door, which led to a succession of whitewashed 
chambers — dark, damp, and gloomy, and then on, in a fissure-like 
pathway, to another equally strongly secured outlet on the other 
side of the crag. Leading to the veranda was a tautly stretched 
rope ladder lashed to eye-bolts let into the natural rock below, 
and hooked on the edge of the floor above. This was the only 
approach to the main floor of the building from the outside, though 
within were heavy trap-doors, like the hatches of a ship, which 
communicated to the chambers beneath. The whole structure was 
of stone and tiles, roughly built, but yet strong and durable, and 
capable of resisting any assault, unaided by cannon, that could be 
brought against it. The floor was divided into four rooms, the 
smallest used for a kitchen, the next for a magazine of small-arms, 
and the third a spacious bedchamber, which opened into a large 
square apartment facing the veranda, and which deserves more 
notice. 

The lofty ceiling came down with the slant, showing the bare 
red tiles and heavy square beams wdiich supported the roof. In 
one of the stoutest of these beams was an eye-bolt and copper- 
strapped block, through which was rove a long green silk rope, 
with one end secured by a cleat on the wall, and the other dangling 
loose, and squirming, whenever a current of air struck it, like a 
long, slim snake. Around the sides of the room, which were 
panelled with cedar, stood four or five quaint ebony armoires^ and 
as many cabinets, clocks, and bookcases, with here and there a 
woman’s work-stand, some of them curiously inlaid with pearl and 
silver. The walls were hung with a great number of pictures of 
all kinds of vessels, — generally, however, of the merchant descrip- 
tion, — under full sail, with vivid light-houses in the distance, and 
combing breakers under the lee ; and all portraying gallant crews 
and buoyant freights which probably had never reached their 
destinations. Among this gallery of marine display w'as a broad 
framing of the “ Flags of all Nations ” ; and codes of signals, too, 
in bright colors, hung beside them. Farther on, in a pretty panel 
by itself, surrounded by an edging of mother-o’-pearl, was a triple 
row of female miniatures, a number of them of great beauty, and 
many executed in excellent taste and art. In one corner was a 


CAPTAIN BRAND AT HOME 


37 


large chart-stand, covered with rolls of maps and nautical instru- 
ments, while above were suspended, by white rope grummets, a 
pyramidal line of spy-glasses and telescopes of all sizes and makes. 
Near the centre of the apartment stood a large round dining-table, 
on which were laid things for a breakfast, a box of cigars, and 
a small silver pan of live coals. There were but two windows to 
this room, both hung with striped muslin curtains, the casements 
going to the floor, and looking out upon the veranda ; and but 
two doors, one leading to the kitchen, and the other to the sleep- 
ing-chamber on the opposite side. 

Presently this last door opened, and, pushing aside a blue gauze 
curtain which hung before it, an individual of about eight-and- 
twenty years of age stepped languidly into the room. He was 
a tall man, — over six feet in stature, — rather spare in build, but 
with great breadth of shoulders, and though pale, apparently from 
long illness, yet he was evidently very active and muscular when 
his nerves were called into action. Had it not been for a down- 
ward choleric curve to his large nose, and a little parting at the 
corners of his wide mouth and compressed lips, the face might 
have been thought handsome. The eyes were light blue, set close 
together, but hard and stony, with no ray of mercy or humanity 
in them. He wore no beard, and his light brown hair was thin 
and dry, and carefully parted at the side. He was dressed in a 
snow-white pair of loose drilling trousers, cut sailor fashion, straw 
slippers, and silk stockings ; and above he wore a brown linen jacket 
with large pearl buttons and pockets. As he entered the room he 
held a delicate cambric handkerchief, with a fine lace border, in 
his hands, which he seemed to regard with curious interest as he 
lounged toward the windows of the veranda. 

“ I wish I could remember,” he muttered musingly to himself, 
‘‘ which of those sisters this bit of cambric belonged to, marked 
with an E. — Ellen or Eliza — hum ! They would die — silly 
things ! — tried to stab me ! Ho ! what fun ! Never left me even 
a miniature, either, for my collection. Bueno! There’s more fish 
in the sea — and under it, too ! ” he concluded, with an unpleasant 
elevation of his eyebrows. 

By this time he had approached the open window, and, shoving 
the delicate fabric daintily in his pocket, gave a slight yawn and 
looked out. Before him lay the deep blue basin of the inlet, with 
a couple of boats hauled up on the shore ; a few idle sailors moved 
about, or squatted beneath the sheds playing cards or sewing. 


38 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Without letting his eye rest more than a moment on this scene, he 
turned and gave a long, earnest gaze between an opening of the 
rocks to seaward. Then, with an angry frown, lie approached the 
table, poured out a cup of black coffee, tlirew rather than dropped 
in a lump of sugar, and sat himself down for his morning’s meal. 
He had scarcely, however, gulped down his cup of coffee and 
choked after it a slice of toast than he pushed away the breakfast 
things, snapped his teeth together like a steel clasp, biting a tooth- 
pick in twain by the effort ; and then, tossing the pieces away, he 
dashed his hand into the cigar-box, extracted one, touched it to the 
pan of coals, and began to smoke savagely. At first the grateful 
smoke ajipeared to soothe his chafed spirit, for he threw himself 
lazily into a large cane-bottomed settee, and, stretching out his 
legs, seemed to enjoy the tranquil scene around him with uninter- 
rupted pleasure. But soon a scowl darkened his face ; he dropped 
his cigar on the floor, and, springing to his feet as if touched by a 
galvanic battery, he snatched down a telescope from the wall, 
steadied it at the window-sash, and peered again long and anxiously 
to windward. He saw nothing, however, save the long, glassy, 
unbroken undulations of a calm tropical sea, rolling away off 
beyond the ledge under a burning sun ; no sign of a breeze — not 
even a cat’s-paw ; and only now and then the leap of a deep-sea 
fish sparkling for a moment in the air, and some sluggish gulls and 
pelicans sailing and diving about the reef for their prey. Shutting 
up the glass with a crash that made the joints ring, he strode to 
the settee, where hung several knotted bell-ropes, and, seizing one, 
gave it a sharp jerk. Then, putting his ear to an aperture in the wall, 
where was a hollow cane tube like the mouth of a speaking-trumpet, 
he listened attentively till a hoarse whisper uttered the word : 

Senor 9 ” 

Putting his mouth to the tube, he said : 

‘‘ Can you make out the Centipede from the crag station ? ” 

“Hot sure, sir, this morning ; but last evening, at sunset, I saw a 
sail which I took to be her. The sea-breeze is just beginning to 
make, and if she’s to windward of Punta Arenas, she’ll soon heave 
in sight.” 

This colloquy was held in Spanish ; and when the signal-man 
had ceased speaking, the interlocutor lit another cigar mechani- 
cally, kicked a footstool out of his way like a foot-ball, and thus 
communed with himself as he rapidly paced between the table and 
the veranda : 


CAPTAIN BRAND AT HOME 


39 


“ Fourteen weeks ago yesterday since the schooner was off Ma- 
tanzas ; not a word of news to cheer me through all that cursed 
fever ; the spring trade done, and the track deserted by this 
time ! ’’ 

Then, pausing in his walk, he stopped at the chart-stand, and, 
unrolling a map, went on : 

‘‘ Where, in the devil’s name, could she possibly have gone to ? 
She might have been to Cape Horn and back before this. Miser- 
able fool that I was to trust the craft with that thirsty, thick- 
headed Gibbs ! Diavolo! he may have been captured, and if he 

has, I hope his neck has been stretched like a shred of jerked 
beef.” 

Even while he was talking a bell struck near the settee, and, 
putting his ear again to the tube, the hoarse voice said : 

“ I can make her out now, senor. She’s just caught the strong 
young breeze, and is, hull up, coming along with the bonnet off her 
foresail and a reef in her main-sail ! There’s a felucca to wind- 
ward of her, which I take to be the Panchita.'*'* 

“Aha!” laughed the individual in the room. “The Centipede 
is safe, then ; and I am to have the pleasure, too, of a visit from 
the Tuerto, the mercenary old owl, with his account of sales 
and his greed. But let me once catch him foul, and, my one- 
eyed friend. I’ll treat you to such a dance that you won’t need 
shoes ! ” 

Here he glanced, with a meaning look, at the silk rope swaying 
from the beam above his head, and the laugh of satisfaction which 
followed was not one a timid man would care to hear in a dark 
night ; nor did it come from his heart, as any one might have dis- 
covered from the ferocious gleam of inward passion which shot 
out in the cold sparkle of bis eyes and flitted away over his grat- 
ing teeth. 

Controlling his feelings, however, and stepping out on the 
veranda, he drew aside the curtains and sung out to the men in the 
huts : “One of you fellows tell the boatswain I want him.” 

The men started up, and a moment after a man in a blue jacket 
stood out from one of the sheds and threw up his hand to his straw 

hat. 

“ Get together the people. Let run the cable at the Alligator’s 
Mouth, and have three or four warps ready for the schooner when 
she passes the point. The Panchita is coming, too, so look out, 
and have enough lines to tow both vessels in case the breeze fails. 


40 


CAPTAIN BBAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Tell Mr. Gibbs to moor close under the other shore in the old berth, 
and to come to me when he’s anchored. D’ye hear?” 

All this was said in a sharp tone of command, and by the alacrity 
with which the orders were executed the men seemed to be accus- 
tomed to a master who knew how to rule them. 


CHAPTER IX 

MASTER AND MATE 

“ So I hauled him off to the gallows’ foot, 

And blinded him in his bags ; 

’Twas a weary job to heave him np, 

For a doomed man always lags ; 

But by ten of the clock he was off his legs 
In the wind, and airing his rags 1 ” 

A COUPLE of hours had passed since the occupant of the stone 
building had last spoken to his subordinates down at the inlet, but 
the interval he devoted to a minute inspection of weapons in the 
armory adjoining his bedroom. They were all in excellent order, 
of the best make, and very neatly arranged in stands and cases 
around the room. When he emerged again, after locking the door, 
he held an exquisite pair of small pistols inlaid with gold in his 
hand, which he gently polished with his cambric handkerchief, and 
then slipped them into his trousers pockets. Then he held short 
dialogues with the voice at the signal-station, and, without looking 
out of the window, informed himself of what was doing outside, 
and what progress the vessels made toward their haven. When, 
however, the schooner poked her slim, low, black bows, with her 
sails down, around the point, he gave one stealthy peep, or glare 
rather, at her. He took all in at that glance, from the patches of 
sheet-lead nailed over the shot-holes in her side to the sawed-off 
stump of the fore-top-mast ; and then he remarked the absence of the 
boat which was carried amidships, and the few men moving about 
her deck. Ay, he took it all in with that one comprehensive glance, 
and when he had done, he raised his forefinger, quivering with 
anger, and slowly and unconsciously passed it, with an ominous 
gesture, across his throat. 

Soon was heard a sullen plunge as an anchor was let go, and the 
splashing of the warps upon the water as the stern of the Centi- 
pede was being moored to the rocks, to make room for her com- 
panion the felucca, now shortly expected. 


MASTER AND MATE 


41 


“ Mr. Gibbs is coming on shore, senor, and he seems to have a 
wooden leg,” came through the tube. “ The doctor is coming with 
him, and there is a little boy in the boat.” 

“ Ho ! ” muttered the man in the saloon, “ where was that brat 
picked up ? ” 

Nothing more was said. The tall man lit a cigar, threw himself 
into an easy attitude on the settee, opened a richly bound volume, 
and waited. Ten minutes may have gone by, when the trampling 
of feet was heard on the smooth rocks outside the building, and the 
voice of Mr. Gibbs exclaimed : 

“ Easy, will ye, doctor ? Don’t you see it tears the narves out 
of me to hobble with this broomstick-handle of a leg ? There ! 
Stop a bit ! How in thunder am I to climb this ladder ? Oh ! ” 
Here a low howl of pain. “Another shove. Easy, old Sawbones ! 
So — give us another push, will ye ? All right ! There, that ’ll do.” 

The next minute Mr. Bill Gibbs stood on the broad piazza, and, 
with the assistance of a crutch, he hobbled to the entrance of the 
apartment, and, only pausing to recover his wind and compose his 
features, he pulled off his straw hat and entered. 

“ So ho ! Mr. Gibbs,” said the man on the settee, as the burly 
lame ruiSan darkened the entrance, laying the book down as he 
spoke, and waving his delicate handkerchief before him — “ So ho ! 
Mr. Gibbs, you’ve come back at last ! Delighted to see you. I 
am, ’pon my soul. Ah ! one of those stout pins gone? Why, 
how’s this ? Some little accident ? Santa Cruz rum and a tumble 
down the hatchway, perhaps, eh? D’ye smoke? Take a cheroot. 
Put that bag on the table.” 

All this was said in a gay, gibing tone, with an indifference and 
sang froid that a tight-rope dancer might have been proud of ; and 
as he ended he threw a handful of cigars across the table, and 
pushed the pan of coals toward his visitor. Before, however, 
Gibbs had time to utter a word in reply his companion, while 
lolling over the settee, caught up an opera-glass from the table, 
and, placing it to his eyes, went on : 

“ Ila ! ho ! the fore-top-mast of my pretty long-legged schooner 
is gone. Pretty stick it was ! I suppose. Master Gibbs, that 
2/024,” he added fiercely, without removing the glass, “cut it up 
for that lovely new leg you’ve mounted ? Ay, my beauty ! ” again 
apostrophizing the vessel, which lay like a wounded bird in the 
calm inlet before him ; “ but where’s my handsome barge that used 
to cover the long gun ? Ho ! stormy weather you’ve seen of late.” 


42 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


During all this one-sided conversation Gibbs had managed to 
wriggle his mutilated body on to a wicker chair, where he steadied 
himself with his crutch, evincing manifest signs of choler the 
while by running his fat fingers through the reddish door-mat of 
hair, hitching up his trousers, and rapping nervously his timber 
stump of a leg on the floor, until at last, unable, apparently, longer 
to control himself, he burst out, with his bad face suffused with 
passion : 

“ I say. Captain Brand, it’s time to end them ’ere gibes. What’s 
took place is unfortinate ; but, howsoever, I has a bag of shiners 
and a wooden leg to show for it, and d the odds ! ” 

“ Stop, stop, my bull-dog ! Don’t be profane in my presence, 
if you please. We are both Christians, you know, and friends, 
too, I hope.” 

This was said in a very precise, emphatic, and clear enunciation, 
and without apparent heat ; and Captain Brand smiled, too — but 
such a smile ! as his wide mouth came down with a twitch at the 
corners, and left a sort of hole, where the cigar was habitually 
stuck, to see his teeth through. 

“ And now, my friend, suppose you give me some little account 
of your cruise, and fill up, if you can, any chinks that I haven’t 
seen through already,” he concluded, throwing his legs again over 
the back of the settee, and elevating his eyebrows as the cigar 
smoke curled in spiral wreaths around his face. 

Mr. Gibbs hereupon settled himself more at ease in his chair, 
laid his crutch across his knees, and began : 

‘‘ I s’pose, sir, you got the news I sent in a letter from Matanzas, 
after we’d been chased out of the Nicholas Channel by that Yankee 
corvette ? ” 

Captain Brand nodded at the eye-bolt Avhich held the green silk 
rope from the ceiling, as if calculating mentally the strain it would 
bear, merely as a matter of philosophical speculation, perhaps. 

“Well, arter that, — and a very tight race it was, — we ran down 
to the Behamey Banks. There we picked up a Yankee schooner 
loaded with shingles and lumber, and, as the skipper was sarsy, I 
just made him and his crew walk one of his own planks, and then 
bored a couple of holes through his vessel, arter taking out some 
water, which we stood in need of. You hasn’t a drop of summut 
to drink, has you. Captain Brand ? bekase it makes my jaw-tackle 
dry to talk much.” 

The captain merely motioned with a wave of his cambric hand- 


MASTER AND MATE 


43 


kerchief to an open liqueur-case which stood on a cabinet near, and 
to which Mr. Gibbs hobbled, when, seizing a square flask of crystal 
incased in a network of frosted silver, he returned with it to the 
table. Had Mr. Gibbs chosen he might have brought with the flask 
a small, thimble-shaped liqueur-glass ; but he did not, and contented 
himself with a china coffee-cup which stood on the tray before him. 
He seemed a little near-sighted, too, and, inverting the flask, gave no 
heed to the quantity of fluid he poured into the cup. But he took 
care, however, that it did not run over, and then, raising it with a 
trembling hand to his lips, he said : “ My sarvice to you. Captain 
Brand,” and tossed it down his capacious throat. The captain 
gave no response to this compliment, but as Mr. Gibbs put down 
the coffee-cup he said blandly : 

“ Thank you ; but suppose you put that flask back in the case ? 
I am rather choice with that brandy ; it was a — given to me by 
a — person who was a — unfortunately, hanged, and a — I rarely 
offer it a — the second time.” 

. Puffing his cigar as he spoke in an easy manner, he then turned 
round to listen to Mr. Gibbs’s narrative. Becoming more genial 
as the brandy loosened his tongue, Mr. Gibbs continued : 

‘‘Well, sir, from the Behameys we ran to leeward, nearly to the 
Spanish Main, in hopes, perhaps, of finding some stray fellow as 
was bound to Europe ; but we see nothing for days and days, and 
weeks and weeks, till finally the water fell short again, and we 
beats up and runs into Santa Cruz. There, as luck would have it, 
Eboe Pete and French Tom got into a bit of a scrimmage up on 
a gentleman’s plantation arter sunset, and was werry roughly han- 
dled by a patrol of sogers as happened to be near. I believe as 
how Eboe Pete died that night ; and I heerd, too, that French 
Tom had his skull cracked ; and what does he go for to do but 
make a confession to the authorities that the Centipede was a 
pirate ! Well, captain, the werry moment that information reached 
me, and seein’ a sogers’ boat gettin’ ready^ and the sogers running 
about the water-battery of the fort, then I just slips the cable, and 
runs out to sea like a bird ; and. Lord love ye, sir ! the way they 

pitched round shot arter us was — was ” Here Master Gibbs 

paused for a simile, and the captain observed, with a hacking, 
cough-like laugh : 

“ You saved the water-casks, though ? ” 

“Why, no, sir; and we was forced to go upon a ’lowance of a 
pint o’ water a man ! ” 


44 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


‘‘ Ho ! ” rejoined the listener. “ Capital ! Didn’t suffer, I hope ? 
Go on.” 

“ Howsoraever, I says to myself : ‘ The captain wants a good, 
valy’ble cargo,’ and so we beats up again and stretches away back 
along the coast of Jamaiky, on the lookout for any think that 
might be cornin’ that ’ere way. Well, sir, d’ye see, airly one 
morning, as we was a-lying as close as wax under the land, we 
spies a big brig becalmed off to seaward ; but we diskivered at 
the same time that same Yankee cruiser as was in chase of us off 
Matanzas. I knowed as how you would be displeased at any 
risks being run, so we keeps clean and snug inshore, under a p’int o’ 
land, till set of sun, and until arter the moon went down. Then 
the breeze sprung up fresh from the old trade quarter, and says I ; 

‘ Now we’ll make a dash at that ’ere drogher, and squeeze him as 
dry as bone-dust ’ ; more pertikerly, ye see, captain, since the cor- 
vette, arter dodgin’ about him all day, had yawed off, and, with his 
port-tacks aboard, was beatin’ to wind’ard.” 

Here Mr. Gibbs’s auditor took the cigar from his mouth and 
rolled his light-blue eyes at him, puffed a thick volume of smoke 
through the corner of his mouth, but said never a syllable. 

The narrator gave a wistful look at the brandy-flask, drained 
the last few drops from the coffee-cup, pushed out his timber leg, 
and resumed : 

“ So, you see, sir, as I was a-sayin’, I says to myself : ‘ I’ll get the 
boat in the water with the lads, and, to make sure of all being 
conducted ship-shape. I’ll go myself.’ ” 

“ Oh ! ” said the captain, as his eyebrows went up and the cor- 
ners of his mouth came down, with the faintest breath of a sar- 
donic smile, while he lit a fresh cigar — “ oh ! you did ! ” 

“ Ay, sir. So we let the old drogher go bouncing on past us, at 
about the rate of five mile in four hours, when we crossed his 
wake under the jib, and then we ups with the fore- and main-sail, 
got a pull of the sheets, and ” 

Captain Brand shook the point of his curved nose at the speaker, 
who checked himself, and, giving an emphatic rap with his crutch 
on the floor, went on with : 

‘‘Beg parding, sir ; but. Lord love ye ! we just walked up under 
his lee, and afore he know’d where he wos we boarded him, knocked 
over two or three chaps, and had the skipper lashed down in his 
cabin as quick as winkin’ and as quiet as could be. Ay, sir, we had 
it all our own way ; but during the scrimmage wot should I see,” — 


MASTER AND MATE 


45 


here he inclined his head out like a loggerhead turtle, — “ but the 
lovely est young ’onian as ever I clapped eyes on ! ’’ Here his 
timber stump grated nervously on the floor. “ Says I : ‘ That’s just 
the craft, with such a clean run and full bows, as would please 
Captain Brand ” — at which that individual rolled round on his 
elbow and brought his eye to the opera-glass in the direction of the 
schooner. 

“ She isn’t there, captain ! ” parenthesized the narrator, following* 
the motion with his head. ‘‘So I just fisted hold of her to hand 
her tenderly into the boat, with a bag of shiners as wos found on 

board, when, so help me (beg parding, sir), if a dwarfed giant 

of a nigger didn’t take an overhand lick at me with an iron pump- 
brake, and nearly cut this ’ere larboard pin in two pieces ; and, 
smash my brains ! ” he continued, shaking his broad paw aloft with 
rage, “but what does I do, with all the pain from the clip that 

da (beg parding, sir) give me, I slams away with a pistol bullet 

through the nigger’s head ” 

“Didn’t I see a little boy on board the Centipede? — perhaps I 
was mistaken, the sun blazes so fiercely — eh ? ” broke in Captain 
Brand, though the sun didn’t blaze with a fiercer light than shot 
out of his deadly cold blue eyes. 

“ Ho, ay, sir ; that young imp was a-bitin’ at my t’other leg like 
a bull- terrier pup while the nigger was attackin’ me, and then he 
goes and crawls out of the cabin winders, and was fished out of the 
water by the chaps as wos towin’ astarn in the boat.” 

“ Oh, reall}^ ! how very fortunate ! ” muttered the captain. “ Go 
on ; don’t stop, I pray you. Master Gibbs.” 

“ Well, sir, I knows very little what happened arter this, for the 
young ’oman was a-screamin’ and our chaps a-cursin’ about the 
decks, when all of a sudden I fell off into a faint like, and the 
same time a heavy gun came slamming into our very ears ; and 
there was that infarnal corvette agen bowlin’ down within five 
cables’ length of the brig, her battery all alight and the whistles 
a-callin’ away the boats in as violent a haste as any think I can 
remember,” said Gibbs, as he paused to catch his breath. 

“ You must have kept a sharp lookout, though.” 

But, withbut heeding this remark, the burly scoundrel went on : 

“ Well, Captain Brand, the boys tumbled me over the side ” 

“ Not forgetting the little bag of shiners ! ” sneered his auditor. 

“Tumbled me into the boat, sir, and then pulled like mad for 
the schooner, I know’d, d’ye mind, captain, or leastways I felt 


46 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


sartain, we could show any think afloat our heels, and so away we 
scrambles aboard, and off we splits. But ye must see by this time, 
sir, the corvette had come down and rounded to on the weather 
beam of the drogher, acting like a screen for the schooner close 
under his lee. It wos only a minnit, though, while he was holding 
some jaw with those lubbers aboard the brig, before he filled away 
again, and, wearing sharp round her bows, he diskivered us sartain. 
I don’t think, as matters stood by this time, that our boat was a 
boat-hook’s length from the schooner, when I jist see a burst of red 
flashes from the man-o’-war’s starboard ports, and heerd an officer 
roar out : ‘ Give him the whole three divisions of grape ! ’ when 

I’m da (your parding agin, sir) — I’m blest if ever I heerd sich 

a rain of cold iron in all my sea-goin’ experience. Ay, sir, by 
G — gracious, sir, if about two bushels of them grape didn’t riddle 
the barge like the nozzle to a watering-pot, and same time tore 

seven of our noble fellows all to rags ” 

“ You saved the boat, of course ? ” suggested his companion, in 
a kind voice, but with a frightful sneer. 

“ Why, captain, we unfortinately lost her ; for, ye see, arter 
tumbling me aboard the schooner, and arter bailing nigh as much 
blood as water ” 

“ Capital ! excellent ! best joke I ever heard,” broke in Captain 
Brand, with a hollow laugh of much enjoyment. 

“ Arter bailin’ as much blood as water, and finding the man-o’- 
war was heaving in stays to slam another broadside into us, Ave cut 
the boat adrift, and then got the sheets flat aft, the gaff-top-sails up, 
and away we drove with a crackin’ breeze right up to wind’ard, like 
a sword-fish. Lord love ye, sir ! we walked away from the cruiser, 
a-eatin’ the wind out of him, like a knife ; and, notwithstandin’ he 
hove more nor forty round shot at us, he only knocked away the 
fore-top-mast and some other triflin’ little damage about the hull, 
and ” — he hesitated — ‘‘ Lascar Joe’s head.” 

“ That counts off about half your crew, eh ? ” said Captain 
Brand, smiling in his peculiar manner. “ Well, what next ? ” 

‘‘ Why, sir, the next mornin’ Belize Paul — as is part doctor, you 
knoAv — said as how my leg was to come off below the knee, and 

arter givin’ me a sip or two o’ rum ” 

“ Bottle,” interrupted the captain, twisting the beak of his nose 
in a puff of smoke. 

“ Rum— why, smash my brains, sir, if he didn’t hack it off with a 
wood-saw ! ” 


MASTER AND MATE 


47 


“ Well, what next ? ” 

“ Then, sir, ye see, we run the schooner down Cape Cruz, where 
we kept werry snug and quiet till sich times as the old one-eyed 
Diego judged the coast clear to return to head-quarters.” 

“ Well, what then ? ” 

“That’s all. Captain Brand,” concluded the narrator of the 
garbled yarn, as he again had recourse to scratching the door-mat 
on his head, and cast a thirsty look at the brandy-flask. 

“That’s all, is it ?” hissed the man with the iron jaws, in a tone 
of concentrated passion, as he sprung with a single bound from the 
settee and clutched Master Gibbs with both hands around his hairy 
throat until his face turned livid purple and his eyes started from 
the sockets. “ That’s all, is it, you drunken beast ! That’s all you 
have to tell after idling awa}^ the summer, losing anchors and boats, 
and more than half my crew, and bringing a hornet’s nest down 
about our ears ! That’s all, is it? And what would you say, now, 
if I should order the doctor to cut off your other leg close behind 
your ears, you beast ? ” 

In the last stages of suffocation the man was hurled on his back 
to the floor, and there lay, bleeding a torrent from his mouth and 
nose. His superior stood over him for a moment and put his hand 
in his trousers pocket for a pistol, and then he glanced rapidly at 
the green rope squirming from the beams above ; but, changing 
his- purpose, apparently, he strode back to the settee and shouted : 
“ Babette ! ” 

Presently the door opened from the passage leading to the 
kitchen, and there appeared a large, powerfully made negro woman, 
with her arms akimbo, and a pair of bloodshot eyes gleaming from 
beneath a striped Madras turban wound round her head. 

“ Babette ! ” repeated the captain, resuming his seat and his 
habitual polite air and voice, “ serve out a barrel of Bordeaux and 
a beaker of old Antigua rum to the Ceiitipede^s crew to drink my 
health ; and, I say, my beauty, have a pig or two killed ; tell the 
boatswain to haul the seine, and have a good supper for all hands 
to-night. And, Baba,” he went on, as if he had just thought of 
something, “ there’s m}^ friend Gibbs lying there — I believe he has 
fallen down in a fit — be very careful of him — a bed in the vault — 
a little biscuit and water — he may be feverish when he wakes up, 
you know. And, Babette, old girl, if you are in want of kindling 
wood, you may as well use that timber leg of our friend Gibbs’s. I 
don’t think he’ll want it again. There ! doucement^ Baba ! ” 


48 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


The negress gave a deep grunt of assent, and, seizing the sense- 
less body lying on the floor, she dragged it out of tlie room. Re- 
turning a few moments after, she wiped up the blood with a cloth 
dipped in hot water, and finally disappeared. 


CHAPTER X 

AN ANCIENT MARINER WITH ONE EYE 

“ I fear thee, Ancient Mariner ! 

I fear thy skinny hand 1 
For thou art long, and lank, and brown, 

As is the ribbed sea-sand.” 

“ The Panchita has passed Mangrove Point,” came in the hoarse 
whisper from the signal-man. “You can see her now from below, 
sir.” 

Captain Brand put on a fine Panama hat and stepped out on the 
veranda, where, with a cigar in his mouth, he leaned over the balus- 
trade, and kept sharp watch on every thing that was going on below 
him. In a few minutes a long, pointed, brown bowsprit protruded 
itself beyond the wall of rocks, followed by a great triangular 
lateen-sail, bent to a long yard tapering away like a fly-fishing- 
rod, where, at the end, was a short bit of yellow and red pen- 
nant. As her bows came into view they showed above a curved 
prow falling inboard, with a huge bunch of sheepskin for a chafing- 
mat on the knob, and a thin red streak along the wales, on a lead- 
colored ground, above her bottom, which was painted green. As 
more of her proportions came into the picture you saw a stout 
stump of a mast, raking forward, with short black ropes of pur- 
chases for hoisting the single yard, and heavy square blocks close 
down to the foot of the mast. When this great sail had come out 
from the screen of rocks, another light stick of a mast stood up over 
the taffrail, with another lateen-sail and whip-stalk of a yard, to 
which was bent the Spanish Colonial Guarda Costa flag. In fact, 
she was a Spanish felucca all over, from stem to stern, and truck to 
water-line. A few dingy hammocks were stowed about half-way 
along her rail, and there were a good many men moving about her 
decks, in getting the cable clear, and a lot more clinging like so 
many lizards along the bending yard, and all in some attempt at 
uniform dress, in readiness to roll up the sail when the anchor was 
down. There was a long brass gun, too, burnished like gold, on a 


AN ANCIENT MARINER WITH ONE EYE 


49 


pivot slide, with all its equipment, trained muzzle forward in front 
of the main-mast. No sooner had she sagged into the open basin, 
with her immense sail hanging flat and heavy in the light air, than 
a boat from the schooner boarded 'her, and presently she let go 
an anchor. There were a few coarse compliments and greetings 
exchanged between the crews of the two vessels, and some rough 
jokes made, as the last comer veered out the cable, rolled up his 
sails, and set taut his running-gear in quite a tidy and man-of-war 
style. 

“Goon board the felucca, Jos 6 , and give my compliments to 
Don Tgna9io, and say I shall be happy to see him,” cried Captain 
Brand from the piazza to a man at the cove ; “and tell him,” con- 
tinued he, “that I should have called in person, but I can’t bear the 
hot sun since I caught the fever. Take my gig.” 

This was said in Spanish, and when he had finished speaking, he 
shaded his face behind the curtain and scowled. 

“ You’re a bird of ill omen, my one-eyed friend ; but one of these 
days I’ll wipe out old scores, and new ones, too, perhaps,” Captain 
Brand muttered to himself ; and, from his murderous expression 
of face, he seemed just the man to carry out his threat. Mean- 
while a light whale-boat of a gig, manned by four men and a cox- 
swain, pushed oif from the shore, and in three strokes of the oars 
she was alongside the felucca. The coxswain stepped over the low 
rail, and, walking aft, turned down a cuddy of a cabin, took off his 
hat, and delivered his message. A minute later he again got into 
the boat and pulled to the cove, where he said to the captain : 

“ Don Igna9io says he’ll come in his own boat when he’s ready.” 

Bueno ! ” was responded aloud ; and then to himself : “ Don’t 
ask or receive favors, eh ? What an old file the brute is ! ” 

He said no more, but watched. Presently a small man came up 
out of the cabin of the Panchita, but so very slowly and with such 
a quiet motion did he emerge that one might suppose it was a wary 
animal rather than a human being. He was scrupulously neat in 
attire — a brown pair of linen trousers, a Marseilles vest, with silver 
filigree buttons, an embroidered shirt-bosom, with gold studs, and 
a dark navy-blue broadcloth coat, with standing collar and anchor 
gilt buttons. His head-gear was simply a white chip hat, with a 
very narrow brim, and a fluttering red ribbon ; but beneath it his 
coal-black hair behind was cropped as close as could be, leaving a 
single long and well-oiled ringlet on each side, which curled like 
snakes around a pair of large gold rings pendent from his ears. 

3 


50 CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 

His complexion was dark, bilious, and swarthy, with a thin, sharp 
nose, and a million of minute wrinkles, all meeting above, at the 
corners, and under a small line of a mouth — quite like rays, in fact, 
and only relaxed when the lips parted to show a few ragged, rotten 
pegs of sharp teeth. But perhaps the most noticeable feature in 
his face was his eye, — for he had but one, — and the spot where the 
other is seen in the species was merely a red, closed patch of tightly 
drawn skin, with a few hairs sticking out like iron tacks. His 
single eye, however, was a jet-black, round, piercing organ, which 
seemed to do duty for half a dozen ordinary glims, and danced 
with a sharp, malevolent scrutiny, as if the owner was always in 
search of something and never found it, and every-body and every 
thing appeared to slink out of its light wherever it glanced around. 
His age might have been anywhere from forty to sixty. As he 
stepped on deck, clear of the cuddy cabin hatch, his sinister optic 
played about in its socket — now scanning the long brass gun, the 
half-furled sails, the crew, the ropes, or taking a steady, unwinking 
glance at the mid-day sun, and then shining off to the shore, and 
sweeping in the Centipede^ the little pool of blue water, and the 
mouth of the inlet. Feeling apparently satisfied with the present 
aspect of affairs, he slowly pulled out a machero from his waist- 
coat pocket, plucked a cigarette from the case, and then proceeded 
deliberately to strike a light. Even while performing this simple 
operation his uneasy orb, like unto a black bull’s-eye, traversed 
about in its habitual way ; and when he raised the spark of fire 
with his brown, thin hand, and the claws of fingers loaded with 
rings, he seemed to be looking into his own mouth. Nodding to a 
fellow who stood near, with a crimson sash around his waist, he 
inclined his eye toward the shore, blew out a thin wreath of smoke 
from his lungs, — all the while his vigilant organ shining like a burn- 
ing spark of lambent jet through the smoke, — and merely said : 

“ The boat ! ” 

In a moment a small cockle-shell of a punt was lowered from 
the stern of the felucca, when, stepping carefully in, he seized a 
scull, and with a few vigorous twists pushed her to the landing at 
the cove. 

During all these movements of the commander of the felucca 
Captain Brand was by no means an inattentive observer ; and, 
indeed, he was so extremely critical that he stuck the tube of a 
powerful telescope through an aperture of the curtains around him, 
and not only looked at his cautious visitor, but he actually watched 


AN ANCIENT MARINER WITH ONE EYE 


51 


the expression of his uneasy eye, and almost counted every wrinkle — 
finely engraved as they were — on his swarthy visage ; but if Cap- 
tain Brand’s own visage reflected an index of his mind, he did not 
seem over and above pleased with what he saw. 

“ Has a bundle of papers under his arm ! I can see the hilt of 
that delicate blade, too, sticking out from his wristband. Ah ! 
I’ve seen him throw that short blade from his coat-sleeve and 
strike a dollar at twenty yards ! Wonderful skill with knives you 
have, Don Igna 9 io ; but you never yet tried your knack with me! 
Oh, no, my Tuerto — bird of ill omen that you are ! We can’t do 
without one another just yet, so let us wait and see what’s in the 
wind ! ” 

Soliloquizing these remarks. Captain Brand withdrew his tele- 
scope as the commander of the felucca approached, and, with a 
cheerful smile, waited to receive him. A few moments later the 
one-eyed individual mounted the rope-ladder stairway, carefully 
feeling the strands, however, and looking suspiciously around him 
as he stepped lightly on the piazza. 

^^Ah! compadre mio!^^ exclaimed Captain Brand in Spanish, as 
he seized his visitor by the flipper and squeezed his fingers till the 
pressure on his valuable rings made him wince, as he was led into 
the large and spacious saloon, while at the same time the captain 
gave him a hearty slap between his narrow shoulders. ^^Ah! 
compadre! How goes the friend of my soul ?” 

The small man gave no symptoms of joy at this warm greeting ; 
but, screwing his wiry frame out of the captain’s caresses, his eye 
flashed like a spark of fire quicklj'^ up and down and all around the 
apartment, as if making a mental inventory of the furniture, and 
not omitting his tall companion, from the crown of his head to the 
toes of his straw slippers, when he quietly remarked through his 
closed teeth : 

estamos? How are we?” 

“Ah, Don Igna9io, poco hueno, poco malo! Half and half. 
Just getting well over that maldito attack of Yellow Jack.” 

“ Hum ! more bad than good. No ! I’ve brought you some 
letters from the agent at Havana.” 

“ Thanks — thanks, my friend. Ho ! Babette ! Babette ! Some 
anisette for Don Igna9io. Presto! my good Baba. There — that 
will do ! ” he said merrily, as the liqueur and glasses were placed 
on the table. “And don’t omit the turtle-soup for dinner, and tell 
Lascar Joe to make it. Ah ! I forget — the best cook I had — the 


52 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


devil’s making soup of him now. However, do the best you can, 
my Baba, and let us have dinner about sunset.” 

Then, turning to his visitor, with a graceful bow and a laugh, he 
added ; “ And we’ll have the doctor to join us, and tell how he cut 
off our poor friend Gibbs’s leg with a hand-saw. Dios! amigo! 
Capital joke, ’pon my honor ! ” 

Captain Brand’s honor ! Lord have mercy upon us ! And he 
had very few jokes, and never told one himself. 

“ Hum ! ” replied the Tuerto, in the pause of the conversation. 
“ There’s better jokes than that to hear. Mira ! look ! ” 

With this brief rejoinder he threw a bundle of newspapers on the 
table, and, pulling out a packet of letters from a breast pocket, 
pitched it toward his host. Then, helping himself to a thimbleful 
of anisette, he took off his narrow-brimmed chip hat for the first 
time, polished up his eye a bit with the knuckle of his forefinger, 
and looked at his companion fixedl3^ 

“ Letters, I see, from our old friend Moreno at Havana,” said 
Captain Brand as he sat down on the settee, and with a pretty 
tortoise-shell knife cut round the seals. “Ah ! what says he ? 
‘ Happy to inform you,’ is he ? ‘ Packages of French silks seized 

by custom-house on account of informal invoice and clearance.’ 
Why didn’t the fool forge others, then ? Well, what next ? 
‘ Schooner Reel from Barbadoes, with cargo of rum and jerked 
beef, wrecked going into Principe, and crew thrown into prison on 

suspicion of being engaged in ’ Oh ! ah ! served them right, 

when I ordered them to St. Jago — delighted they must be ! ‘Bills 
for advances and stores now due, please remit, per hands of Don 
Igna9io Sanchez ’ ” 

Here Captain Brand caught a ray from the one eye of his com- 
panion, which he returned with interest ; and then, laying the 
letters down on the table with the softest motion in life, he 
exclaimed, with a sigh: 

“ Not the best news in the world, as you say, compadre ; all those 
rich goods, and those bags of coffee, and pipes of rum gone to the 
devil. But these are little accidents in our profession.” 

“ Como f ” said Senor Igna-9io, “ our profession ? ” shaking his 
forefinger before his paper cigar in a deprecating manner. “ Speak 
for yourself, amigo!^ 

“ Ah ! true,” the other went on — “ my profession. The freedom 
of the seas, the toll of the tropics, the right of search, and all that 
sort of buccaneering pastime, is liable, you know, to the usual risks.” 


AN ANCIENT MAEINER WITH ONE EYE 


53 


Here he inclined his head to one side and gave a slight clack to 
his lips, as if to illustrate in a humorous way a man choking to death 
with a knotted rope under his ear. “ However, we must be more 
cautious in future and retrieve the past disasters, for there are still 
on the sea as good barks as ever floated.” 

Captain Brand said this as if he were a merchant of large means 
and strict integrity, and was about to enter into some shrewd com- 
mercial speculation. 

“ Hum ! ” murmured Senor Igna 9 io, while pouring out another 
little glass of anisette. Amigo mio ! you had better read the 
papers from Havana before you talk of another cruise.” 

“ Oh ! delighted to read the news — quite refreshing to get a 
peep at the world after being cooped up here for months ! Another 
French revolution ! Bonaparte alive yet ! A patriot war ! Nelson 
and Villeneuve ! All interesting.” Thus glancing rapidly over 
the prints, pausing at times at a paragraph that arrested his 
attention, then tossing a paper away and taking up another, till 
suddenly Captain Brand’s hand shook with passion as he read 
aloud: 

“ ‘ His Britannic Majesty’s squadron has been augmented on the 
West India station. The brig Firefly^ corvettes Croaker and 
Joker, touched at Nassau, New Providence, on the 2d instant, 
bound to leeward. We also learn that the United States have 
fltted out a squadron of small vessels, called the Mosquito Fleet, to 
search for the noted pirate Brand, who has so long committed 
atrocities among the islands. He was last chased by the American 
corvette Scourge, off Morant Bay, on the east coast of Jamaica, but 
escaped during the night. The following day a shattered boat 
was picked up, which had been cut adrift from the piratical 
schooner, containing several dead and dying bodies of the pirates. 
One of the latter gave such information to the captain of the 
Scourge as leads to the hope that Brand’s retreat may soon be dis- 
covered and his nest of pirates destroyed. Recent advices from 
Principe state that a vessel loaded with valuable merchandise struck 
on the Cavallo Reef and went down. The crew, however, five in 
number, were rescued, but on landing were identified by the mate 
of the English bark Trident as a portion of the men who robbed 
that vessel and murdered the master and several of the passengers. 
Our readers may remember that among the latter were two sisters, 
who leaped overboard and were drowned, to save themselves 
the horror of a more cruel fate. The men alluded to, who were 


64 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


wrecked in the brig off Principe, were sent in chains to Havana, 
and were yesterday publicly garrotted in the Plaza of Moro 
Castle.’” 


CHAPTER XI 

CONVERSATION IN SLEEVES AND POCKETS 

“ He holds him with his skinny hand ; 

‘ There was a ship,’ quoth he. 

‘ Hold off 1 unhand me, graybeard loon I ’ 

Eftsoons his hand dropp’d he.” 

Captain Brand laid down the paper without a sign of out- 
ward emotion, and nodded his head several times at the one-eyed 
man facing him. He then extracted his perfumed handker- 
chief, examined the cipher in the corner, and waved it before 
his face. Don Ignayio pulled out a red silk bandanna and polished 
his eye as if it were the lens of a spy-glass. At length the former 
spoke : 

Amigo mio ! The nets are spreading, but the fish are not in 
them yet.” 

“ No, amigo ! ” 

“ Ah ! compadre, viento y ventura poca dura / the fair breezes 
have chopped round in our teeth. Success, my friend, creates jeal- 
ousy, envy, hatred, and malice. Now, here were we swimming 
along as quietly as sharks under Avater, only coming up for a bite 
occasionally, when on come those villanous sword-fishes, and wish 
to drive us away.” 

Captain Brand gave expression to this pious homilj'^ in a tone of 
virtuous reproach against the world at large, and as if he were a 
very much maligned and ill-used gentleman. He touched the bell 
overhead as he spoke, and, putting his mouth to the tube, asked : 

“ Any thing in sight ? ” ' 

“ Nothing, senor.” 

“ Telegraph the man at the Tiger’s Trap station to keep a bright 
lookout, and direct the gunner to keep the battery manned day and 
night. Tell the boatswain to set taut the chain on the other side 
at the Alligator’s Mouth.” 

Don Igna9io gave a rather suspicious glimmer at his vessel as 
this last order was given and smiled ; that is, if a one-sided twitch 
to the wrinkles about the line of his mouth could be tortured into 


CONVEBSATIONS IN SLEEVES AND POCKETS 


55 


a smile. His companion seemed to divine what was passing in the 
Don’s mind, for he added politely : 

“ The cable won’t interfere with the Panchita f ” 

“No, amigo ; the felucca is anchored just ot^^side of it.” 

The Tuerto was not a man to leave any thing to chance, and he 
had taken the precaution to be on the safe side of the pirates, either 
as friends or enemies. He had, ndeed, been as near an approach to 
a pirate himself as could be, and had only abandoned the business 
for a profession quite as bad, where there was less risk and more 
profit. In other words, he was now a colonial officer in command 
of a guarda costa, winking — but without shutting his eye — at 
piracy whenever he was well paid for it ; and he invariably was 
well paid for it, or else he made mischief. Withal he was as crafty 
and determined an old villain as ever sailed the West Indies. He 
had amassed a large fortune, and owned several tobacco estates — 
pretty much all his wealth acquired by the easy trouble of holding 
his tongue. Yet his greed was insatiable, and he probably would 
have sold the fingers from his hands, and his legs and arms with 
them, — all, save his single black ball of an optic, which was invalu- 
able to him, — for doubloons. In fact, this feverish thirst after gold 
which always raged in his hot veins had induced him to pay Cap- 
tain Brand a visit, and we shall see with what result. The truth 
is, however, that Captain Brand was the only man of his numerous 
villanous acquaintance afloat for whom he felt the least dread. 
He knew him to be bold, skilful, and wary, and so the Don had a 
tolerably positive conviction that, should he play him false, his 
own neck might get a wrench in thegarrote while he was throwing 
the noose for his coadjutor. 

To return, however, to the pair of worthies sitting in conclave ^ 
in the pirate’s saloon. The captain, resuming the conversation, 
observed in a careless tone, quite as if the subject under discussion 
was a mei’e ordinary matter : 

“ When will this swarm of hornets be down upon us ? ” 

The Spaniard blew a thick puff of smoke from his cigarette, and, 
still holding it between his teeth, while his eye glittered through 
the murky cloud, he replied : 

“Perhaps a fortnight, a little more or less. I left St. Jago five 
days ago, with orders from the administrador to run down this 
side of the island and procure information for the English 
consul.” 

“ Any cruisers down that way ? ” 


56 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“ Ay, the corvette Scourge and the Snapper schooner ; they 
arrived the night before I sailed.” 

“Did you happen to see their officers, amigo? ” 

“ OA, si ! I had a long talk with the captain of the corvette at 
the custom-house.” 

“ Halloa ! and you told him ” 

“Yes ; I showed him a chart of the Isle of Pines, and pointed 
out how to get into the old hole.” 

Here the pair laughed short laughs, when Brand continued his 
questions with : 

“And how did he take the bait? ” 

“ Hooked him ; for I heard him order his first lieutenant to be 
ready for weighing at daylight, and say that my description tallied 
with that of the dying man they picked up in the Centipedes boat,” 
replied the Tuerto, with a chuckle. 

“ Bueno ! ” exclaimed the pirate, as his face assumed an unwonted 
sternness, while he rested his cheek on his left hand, with the elbow 
on the table, and slipped his right into the pocket of his trousers. 
“ Bueno ! amigo mio ! But how do I know but you may have 
made a little mistake, and described another haunt besides the 
Island of Pines, off in this direction ?” 

There was the faintest click of a noise in the captain’s pocket as 
he spoke, but not so faint but that it vibrated on the ear of the 
Spaniard, and, pushing back his chair a foot or two from the table, 
he raised his right hand, the forefingers and thumb slightly bent 
inward, but grasping a jewel-hilted knife, whose dim blue blade 
glimmered up the loose sleeve. There was nothing threatening 
apparently in the movement, though the two villains looked at each 
other with a cold, murderous, unflinching glare. 

The Don was the first to break the silence ; and he said, in a 
low, hissing tone : 

“ Maldito! Because I had a little account of plata to settle with 
you before the men-o’-war should roast you out. But beware, 
capitano mio! I left a little paper at St. Jago with directions 
where to find me in case I did not return in a certain time.” 

“ Ho, compadre, how very cautious with your friends ! Why, 
what has put such thoughts into your head ? Biavolo / we have 
stood by one another too long to separate now. There, my hand 
upon it.” 

Saying this, Captain Brand’s whole manner changed, and, draw- 
ing his hand from his pocket, he reached over toward his com- 


CONVERSATIONS IN SLEEVES AND POCKETS 


57 


panion.. The Don, however, watched him narrowly, and his eye 
shot out a wary sparkle as he withdrew his hand, when, cautiously 
putting forth his own left, he touched his cold, thin, brown fingers 
to those of the man before him. This operation ended, he quietly 
sipped a few drops of anisette, and rolled and lighted another paper 
cigar. 

“ Well, amigo, let us now proceed to business,” said Brand gayly, 

“ for dinner will soon be ready, and we have no time to lose. How 
stands the account ? ” 

“ The papers are on board the felucca, and it will be more con- 
venient, when the settlement is made, to come on board with the 
money. How would to-morrow morning do ? There’s no hurry.” 

“ Just as you choose, friend of my soul. The doubloons, or the 
silk, or broadcloth are ready for you at any moment. Pay you in 
any thing except the delicious wines of France. Bueno ! ” he 
added, pulling out a splendid gold repeater, with a marquis’s 
coronet on the chased back. ‘‘ And now, amigo, accept this little 
token into the bargain.” 

Don Igna9io’s fiery eye twinkled with greed, but it was only for " 
a moment, when, giving a quick glance at the coronet and coat of 
arms, he waved his forefinger gently to and fro and shook his 
head. 

“What? No ! Why, you know it once belonged to the Cap- 
tain-General of Cuba, old ‘ Tol-de-rol-de-riddle-rol ’ — what was his 
name? He gave it me, you know, together with some other 
trinkets, for saving his ITe — a — you remember ? Very generous 
old gentleman — nobleman, indeed — he was. May he live a thou- 
sand years, or more, if he can ! ” 

Ay, Don Igna9io did remember the circumstance attending that 
generous transaction, and he remembered to have heard, also, that 
the Captain-General made a present of all his money and jewels 
with the point of a broad blade quivering at his throat. He said 
nothing, however, in allusion to this interesting episode, but smiled 
meaningly, and went on with his cigar. 

“Not take it, eh ? Well, amigo, I must look you up something 
else. But now for dinner. Babette, clear away for dinner. Here 
are the keys of the wine-cellar. The best, my beauty, and plenty 
of it.” Then, turning to his companion : “ Suppose we take a stroll 
to the Tiger’s Trap ? The sun is sinking, and a walk will give us 
an appetite for the turtle-soup — vamanos / ” 


58 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


CHAPTER XII 

DOCTOR AND PRIEST 

“ But soon I heard the dash of oars, 

I heard the pilot’s cheer ; 

My head was turned perforce away, 

And I saw a boat appear. 

“ The pilot and the pilot’s hoy, 

I heard them coming fast ; 

Dear Lord in heaven ! it was a joy 
The dead men could not blast.” 

While Captain Brand and Don Igna9io Sanchez walked pleas- 
antly along the pebbly shore of the clear blue inlet to the Tiger’s 
Trap, let us, too, saunter amid the habitations which sheltered the 
pirate’s haunt. 

Apart from the mat sheds of the shelly cove of the basin, where 
the Centipede and Panchita were anchored, there was a nest of red- 
tiled buildings, which served the crew of the former vessel for 
a dwelling when in port. It was pleasantly situated on a little 
sandy plateau, within a stone’s-throw of the water, and shaded 
by a cluster of palm-trees ; while in the rear was a dense jungle of 
canes and bushes, through which led numerous paths to a small 
lagoon beyond. The buildings were of one story, constructed of 
loose stones, the holes plastered with yellow clay, with broad, pro- 
jecting eaves extending over roughly built piazzas. They stood in 
a double row, leaving a stone pavement yard between, where one 
or two cocoa-nut-trees lifted their slim trunks like sentinels on 
guard. Two of the largest of these huts were mere shells inside, 
and used for mess-rooms, exposing the unhewn girders and roof 
above, but all whitewashed and tolerably clean. The floors were 
of rough mahogany boards, or heavy, dark planks, and no doubt 
part of the cargo of some Honduras trader who had fallen into 
the pirates’ hands. Around the sides of these mess-rooms were 
arranged small tables and canvas camp-stools, with eating utensils 
of every variety of pattern and value, from stray sets of French 
porcelain to common delft crockery. A large open chimney stood 
a little way off, where was a kitchen, in which the cookery was 


DOCTOR AND PRIEST 


59 


carried on under the superintendence of a couple of old negroes. 
Beyond the mess-rooms were the sheds used for sleeping-apart- 
ments, with lots of hammocks of canvas and straw braid hanging 
by their clews from the beams — quite like the berth-deck of a ship- 
of-war. Bags and sea-chests stood out from the walls, with bits of 
mirrors here and tliere, some with the glasses cracked, and others 
in square or round gilt frames. All, however, was arranged with 
a certain degree of order, and the floor was clean and well 
scrubbed. Another detached building, much smaller than the 
rest, was divided by a board partition into two rooms. Tlie first 
was used for a store-room, and was filled with bread in barrels, 
bags of coffee and sugar, hams, dried fruits, beans, salt meats, and 
what not, but every thing in abundance, and apparently the very 
best the market of the high seas could produce. A strong door 
protected this repository, with a wrought-iron bar and padlock. 
The other portion of the building was more habitable. There were 
chairs and tables ; a couple of upright bookcases with glass doors, 
one filled with books, odd numbers of magazines, and old news- 
papers, and the other containing a multitude of phials, pots, and 
bottles of medicine — a small apothecary’s shop, in fact, together 
with two or three cases of surgical instruments. Two elegant 
bureaus, with rosewood doors and mouldings, like those furnished 
passenger-ships to the East Indies, stood against the wall at either 
side ; and near to each, in opposite corners, were low iron bed- 
steads, without mattresses or bedding, and merely stretched with 
dressed and embossed leather. For pillows were Chinese heel- 
stools ; and as for covering, the climate dispensed with it 
altogether. Hanging against the wall were a couple of brace of 
pistols and two or three muskets, and on the table stood a square 
case-bottle of gin, some glasses, and a richly bound breviary 
clasped with a heavy gold strap ; but in no other part of these huts 
were fire-arms ever allowed, and very rarely was liquor served out 
in more than the usual daily half-gill allowance. 

Seated at the table in the last room we have described were two 
men. One, the shorter of the two, was dressed in a long, loose 
bombazine cassock, girded about his waist by a white rope, which 
fell in knotted ends over his knees. Around his open neck was 
hung a string of black ebony beads, hooked on to a heavy gold 
cross, which rested on his capacious breast, and which the wearer 
was continually feeling, and occasionally pressing to his lips. His 
face was dark and sensual, — thick, unctuous lips, a flat nose, and 


60 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


large black e^^es, — while a glossy fringe of raven hair went like a 
thick curtain all around his head, only leaving a bluish white round 
patch on the shaved crown. This individual was the Padre Ri- 
cardo, who, for some good reasons best known to himself, had left 
his clerical duties in his native city of Vera Cruz and taken service 
with Captain Brand. One of the reasons for leaving — and rather 
abruptly, too — was for thrusting a cuchillo into the heart of his 
own father, who had reported him to his superior for his monstrous 
licentiousness. The padre, however, always declared that he was 
actuated entirely by filial duty in killing his old parent, to save him 
the pain and disgrace which would have followed the exposure of 
his son ! He still clung, though excommunicated, to the priestly 
calling, and prided himself upon his fasts and vigils, never omitting 
the smallest forms or penances, and saying mass from Ave Maria 
in the early morning to Angelus at vesper-time in the evening. 
For Captain Brand he was ready to shrive a dying pirate, — and 
pretty busy he was, too, at times, — or hear the confession of one 
with a troubled conscience in sound health, which, if important to 
the safety or well-being of the fraternity, he took a quiet oppor- 
tunity of imparting to his superior in command. In these pursuits 
he not only made himself useful to Captain Brand, but became 
more or less his confidant and adviser, and seemed to maintain his 
influence by ghostly advice over the superstitious feelings of the 
men. The padre, however, utterly detested the sea, and never 
touched his soft feet in the water if he could by any possibility 
avoid it ; but since he had plenty to eat and drink on the island, 
and no end of prayers for his amusement when in charge of the 
haunt — as he was — to look out for the people who were left when 
the Centipede sailed on a cruise, he thus passed the time in a de- 
lightfully agreeable manner. 

The companion who sat opposite to the padre was a tall, gaunt, 
cadaverous person, evidently of French extraction, with something 
kind and humane about his face, but yet the physiognomy ex- 
pressed the utmost determination of character — such a heart and 
eye as could perform a delicate surgical operation without a flutter 
of nerve or eyelid, and who would stand before a levelled pistol 
looking calmly down the barrel as the hammer felk His face was 
intellectual, and he never smiled. His whole appearance portrayed 
a thorough seaman. Where he came from no one knew ; nor did 
he ever open his lips, even to the captain, with a reason for taking 
service among his band. All known about him was that he landed 


DOCTOR AND PRIEST 


61 


from a slaver at St. Jago, and was engaged by Don Igna9io to 
serve professionally with Brand in assisting the patriots on the 
Spanish Main. When, however, he reached the rendezvous of the 
pirates, and discovered that they were altogether a different sort of 
patriots than he had bargained for, he nevertheless made no objec- 
tions to remain, and took the oath of allegiance, only stipulating 
that he should not be called upon to take an active part in their 
proceedings. Here, then, he remained for nearly three years, 
attending to the sick or wounded, taking no interest in the accounts 
of the exploits of the freebooters around him — rarely, indeed, hold- 
ing speech with any one save his room-mate, the padre, or occa- 
sionally a dinner or a walk with Captain Brand. On the last expe- 
dition, however, of the Centipede he had been induced to go on 
board, so that he might become a check and guard over the brutal 
ruffian who had been placed temporarily in command ; but, as we 
have already seen, his influence had been of little avail. 

There was yet another occupant of the room inhabited by the 
doctor and Padre Ricardo; and a low, moaning cry caused the 
former to rise quietly from his chair and approach the low iron 
bedstead on his side of the lodging. There, beneath a light gauze 
mosquito net, lay our poor little Henri — his once round, rosy, inno- 
cent face now pale and thin, with a red spot on each cheek, and a 
dark, soft line beneath the closed eyes. Uneasily he moved in his 
fitful slumber ; and, putting his little hands together as if in prayer, 
he murmured : “ Oli, mamma, mamma ! ” 

Beside the bed stood an unglazed jar of lemonade, together with 
a phial and a spoon. The doctor drew nigh, and, gently pushing 
aside the curtain, stood looking at the child for some minutes. 
Presently the little sick boy feebly stretched out his delicate, thin 
limbs, and unclosed his eyes. Oh, how dim, and sad, and touching 
was that look, as he gave a timid, half-wild stare ! and then, clos- 
ing the lids tight together, the hot drops bubbled out and coursed 
slowly down his tender cheeks. 

The doctor, with the gentleness of a woman, bent over him, and, 
taking up his poor limp little hand, he remained feeling the flutter- 
ing pulse and catching the hot breath on his dark cheeks. As 
if communing with himself, while a glow of compassion lighted up 
his care-worn visage, he muttered : 

“ By the great and good God who hears me, if I save this child, 
I will restore him to his heart-broken mother ! ” 

He sunk down on his knees by the bedside as he made this vow, 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


and, letting the little hand rest on the bed, buried his face in his 
large, bony hands. What thoughts passed through that man’s 
mind none but the Almighty knows ; but when he arose, his stern 
features had resumed their wonted expression, and, pouring a little 
lemonade in a glass, he held it to the sleeper’s lips. Then, moving 
noiselessly back to the table, he said, in a low tone : 

“ Padre, the boy will live. His fever is leaving him, and he will 
get well.” 

^^Ave Maria ! Santissima! ” ejaculated the padre, crossing him- 
self and kissing his cross. ‘‘ I pray for him. You must give him 
to me, doctor. I will make him a little priest, and he shall swing 
the censer and chant the ‘ Misericordia ’ when I get the new chapel 
built.” 

“Time enough to think of that, mi padre, when he gets strong 
again. But just now all the prayers you can say for him will 
do him no good, and so I hope you won’t put yourself to the 
trouble.” 

“ Cierto, amigo, doctor ; but don’t sneer at the prayers of the 
Church. They do good ; they ease the soul and soothe the pangs 
of purgatory.” 

“Ah ! and how long do you expect to stop in purgatory ? ” 

Ave purissima / What a question to ask your pious and de- 
vout Padre Ricardo ! ” 

“ Question the devil when you want fire,” retorted the doctor, as 
he opened a book lying on the table before him, and put an end to 
the dialogue. His companion quietly helped himself to a measure 
of pure gin, and unclasped the covers of his richly bound missal. 

Scarcely, however, had their conversation ceased when a hoarse 
hum of many voices was heard in the direction of the sheds 
without, mingled with shouts in all tongues, and uproarious 
laughter. 

“ J^este / ” said the doctor, looking out of an open window ; “ the 
people have knocked off work and are coming home to their sup- 
per. They seem to have brought some of the crew of the felucca 
with them, too. We shall have a loud night of it, for the captain 
has sent them a pipe of wine and a barrel of rum to carouse 
with.” 

“Po^re gitosf they have had a hard time of it during the sum- 
mer — short of rum, and water, too, I hear, and they need refresh- 
ment and repose. So many of my poor flock killed, too, by that 
savage American corvette, and I not near to administer the last 


DOCTOR AND PRIEST 


63 


consolation and holj rite ! ” sighed the padre, as he kissed the cru- 
cifix and bowed his head. “ There is Lascar Joe, too, among the 
missing. He refused the sacrament, infidel as he was, the day 
before he sailed. But what turtle-soup he made ! ” The padre 
hereupon sighed deeply again, but whether for the loss of the Las- 
car or the soup no one knows. 

The noise without increased — the rattle of crockery, the clinking 
of glasses, the moving of feet, and all the sounds of hungry, bois- 
terous sailors at table. Soon, too, a shout or cheer would be heard, 
then a verse of a song, roars of laughter, and now and then the 
tinkle of a guitar struck by vigorous fingers in waltz or fandango. 

“ Mer^i ! ” muttered the doctor, as he looked compassionately 
at the sick child on the bed ; “ those noisy wretches will, I fear, 
disturb the little boy ; and it’s as hot here, too, padre, as the place 
we all are going to.” 

“ It is warm, my son,” he replied, as his thick, unctuous lips 
parted with a smile at his companion’s allusion to another and a 
hotter place ; ‘‘ but I think our good capitano would have a cot 
slung for my little priest in the saloon of the big building, there. 
It is always cool on the crag, you know.” 

“ Ah ! perhaps he will,” said the doctor reflectively.’ ‘‘ I’ll see 
about it.” 

Stepping again to the bedside of the little sufferer, he laid a 
hand gently on his forehead, where the soft curls lay in confusion 
about his temples, and then, quickly touching his pulse, he regarded 
him attentively for a few moments, while at the same time a light 
glow of perspiration came faintly over the innocent face and 
spread itself down the neck. 

‘‘ His fever is breaking ! Grace d Dieu!'^ whispered the doctor 
to the padre, “ his breath is regular and cool, and he is sleeping 
sweetly. Now, if you like, we will go to see the captain, and, 
if he consents, I will carry the child, when he wakes, to the 
dwelling.” 

The doctor carefully closed the door of the room as he and his 
companion stepped out into the open court-yard and moved toward 
the spacious sheds beyond. 


64 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE” 


CHAPTER XIII 

A MANLY FANDANGO 

“ While feet and tongnes like lightning go, 

With ‘ What cheer, Luke ? ’ and ‘ How do, Joe ? ’ 

Dick Laniard chooses Meg so spruce, 

And buxom Nell takes Kit Caboose. 

“ Now around they go, and around and around. 

With hop, skip, and jump, and frolicsome bound, 

Such sailing and gliding. 

Such sinking and sliding, 

Such lofty curvetting 
And grand pirouetting, 

Mix’d with the tones of a dying man’s groans. 

Mix’d with the rattling of dead men’s bones.” 

Twilight had taken the place of the red sun, the stars came 
timidly out one by one, and then in sparkling clusters the brilliant 
constellations illumined the blue heavens as the rosy twilight again 
faded away. Then the ripple of the inlet came with a tranquil, 
musical sound upon the white, pebbly beach, the lizards in the holes 
and crevices of the rocks began their plaintive wheetlings, the 
frogs and alligators joined in the chorus from the low lagoon in the 
distance, and the early night of the tropic had begun. 

But louder far than the hum of the insects and reptiles, and 
brighter than the lamps of heaven, arose the wild shouts and songs 
of the pirates carousing, where the torches and wax-lights lit up 
the scene of their orgies with the glare of day. The great mess- 
room was a blaze of light from candles and lamps, stuck in brack- 
ets or gilt sconces about the walls, or hanging awiy in broken 
chandeliers from the lofty beams. The remains of their feast had 
been cleared away, and the tables were covered with bottles, cups, 
and glasses, with boxes of cigars and pans of lighted coals. At 
one end of the room was a large table, on which was laid a black 
cloth with a broad silver border, — sometimes used by the padre on 
great occasions, — and covered with cards and piles of Mexican or 
Spanish dollars. At the other end was a raised platform, where 
four or five swarthy fellows with guitars in their hands were 
strumming away in the clear, rattling harmony of Spanish boleros 
and dances, shrieking out at intervals snatches of songs in time to 


A MANLY FANDANGO 


65 


the music, or twirling the instruments around their heads in a 
frenzy of excitement. At the tables, too, were more of the excited 
band, vociferating with almost superhuman fluency in various lan- 
guages their exploits, pausing occasionally amid the hubbub to 
clink their glasses together, and then chattering and yelling on as 
before. In the centre of the apartment were some half dozen of 
the same sort, either spinning around the floor in the waltz, or 
moving with a certain air of careless, manly grace one toward an- 
other in the gavotte or bolero. There were at the least some sixty 
or seventy of these fellows in the room together, most of them 
above the middle height, with finely developed muscles, broad 
shoulders, bushy whiskers, and flowing hair. They came ap- 
parently from all climes, from Africa to the Mexican Gulf, and 
their features and complexions partook of every imaginable type, 
from the light skin and florid complexion of the Swede to the low 
brow and oval olive cheek of the Mediterranean, and the coal-black 
hue and flat nose of the Bight of Benin. Their dress was uni- 
form — frock collars cut square and thrown well back over their 
ample chests, their nether limbs incased in clean duck or brown 
linen trousers, with silk sashes around their waists, and large gold 
rings in their ears. Mingled here and there in the moving throng, 
or leaning over the large table with the black cloth cover, were a 
few fellows in the uniform rig of the Guarda Costa, in navy jackets, 
and black silk belchers around their throats ; but all were without 
weapons of any description, and were enjoying themselves each 
after his fancy. Sentinels stood at the doors of the mess-room 
with drawn cutlasses over their shoulders, so that in case of a 
violent quarrel or row, in dance, drinking, or gaming, the culprits 
might be cared for. 

While the uproar was at its height, and the lofty tiled roof was 
ringing with the gay and ribald songs and shouts of the excited 
crowds, two persons appeared at the door-way in the middle of the 
room and entered. In a moment, as the busy revellers beheld 
them, the dance ceased, the music of the guitars died away in a 
tinkling caden9a, the glasses stopped clinking, the dollars no longer 
chinked, and the songs and shouts were hushed. You might have 
heard a real drop for a minute, until one of the individuals who had 
entered slowly walked forward a few paces and threw his right 
hand aloft in salutation. Then burst forth a hoarse, simultaneous 
shout of : 

Viva nuestro amigo ! Viva el capitano / ” 


66 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Captain Brand did not pause until he had reached the centre of 
the great hall, where he stood calmly looking around upon the 
swarthy groups, who crowded about in circles at a respectful 
distance from him ; and then amid the silence he spoke up, in a 
frank, off-hand manner : 

“ Well, my men, I am glad to see you all once more around me. 
You have not been so successful as I hoped, but we must take the 
good and ill luck as it comes, and I have no fault to find with you. 
The times, however, are bad enougli ; for I have certain news that 
our retreat here, where we have so long been hid, may be dis- 
covered,” — the villains around held their breath and let their cigars 
lie dead in their mouths, — “ but,” went on their commander, ‘‘ I 
shall do all that is prudent in the circumstances for the benefit of 
all of us ; and when we leave here, you will still have me for your 
leader, with my head, heart, and blade ever ready to advise or 
protect you.” As he stopped speaking another cheer arose : 

‘‘ Yiva miestro amigo ! viva ! viva ! El ‘ Centipede ’ y el 
capitano ! Hasta muertoP^ (I^ong live the captain! We 
stand by you until death ! ) 

“ Thank you, my friends. I have but one more word to say. 
The men who have the relief at the signal-stations and the water- 
battery must keep sober. Now go on again with the music.” 

The captain, however, did not immediately quit the hall, but, 
while the revel began once more with all its enthusiasm, he moved 
amid the crowd of his adherents and said a cheerful word to 
many. 

Ah ! Pepe, your arm in a sling, eh ? a graze of a grape-shot, 
eh? Why, Hans, you here? Nothing can hurt you! Well, 
M. Antoine, how well thou art looking ; and that pretty sweetheart 
of thine at St. Lucie ! Bah ! never look sad, man ; thou shalt see 
her again. What, my jolly Jack Tar ! an ugly scratch that across 
your jaw — a splinter, eh ? Never mind ; a little plaster and half 
allowance of grog will put you all right again. So good-night, my 
friends. Adios!^^ 

Saying these words, all addressed to the individuals in their 
different languages, he gave a graceful wave of his hand and passed 
out of the building. As he rejoined his friend, the commander of 
the Panchita, who had waited at the threshold, while his wary 
glim of an eye searched the faces and read the thoughts of all the 
villains who clustered about the room, they both stepped out into 
the court-yard and sauntered pleasantly on toward the crag. They 


A PIRATES’ DINNER 


had not, however, proceeded many paces before they encountered 
the padre and the doctor. 

“ Ah ! exclaimed the captain, who was in advance, ‘‘ how goes^ 
it with my doctor ? ” shaking his hand as he spoke. “ Oh, mi 
padre, how art thou ? ” turning to Ricardo. 

“ Salve / my son ; not been so well this morning, with the old 
rheumatism in my head.’’ 

“ Drunk ! ” said the doctor sententioiisly. 

Then, again, with a gay laugh, to the other : “ Well, my doctor, 
your first cruise has not been so pleasant in the Centipede as I hoped 
it might be, but the next may be more agreeable.” 

“ Perhaps so. Captain Brand ; but I shall have a word or two 
with you on that subject to-morrow ; and, in the meanwhile, 
senor, I brought a little boy back with me who is ill from fever, 
and my quarters are so stifling hot, and the air from the lagoon is 
so bad, that I would like to stow him for a day or so, with your 
permission, in your quarters, where it is cooler.” 

“ Certainly, doctor ; why not ? My house and all in it are at 
your service. By the way, I was about to ask you and the padre 
to dine with me and Don Igna9io, there. Will you join us ? Yes ? 
Then let us move on, for dinner must be ready by this time, and 
it would be a sin to keep Babette waiting.” 

Excusing himself for a few minutes, the doctor went for his sick 
charge, and returned with him in his arms to the pirates’ 
dwelling. 


CHAPTER XIV 
A pirates’ dinner 

“ But the best of the joke was, the moment he spoke 
Those words which the party seemed almost to choke, 

As by mentioning Noah some spell had been broke, 

And, hearing the din from barrel and bin. 

Drew at once the conclusion that thieves had got in.” 

When the guests had assembled in the pirates’ saloon, it was 
some minutes before their host appeared. When, however, he did 
step into the room from his private apartment adjoining, he was 
altogether a different man in outward appearance than in the early 
morning. In place of the loose, sailor summer rig which he then 
wore he was now attired as a gentleman of elegant fashion of the 
time of which we write. His lower limbs were clothed with flesh- 


68 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


colored silk stockings, and fitted into a pair of pointed toed pumps, 
with buckles of brilliants that a duchess might have envied. A 
pair of white cassimere breeches, which set off to advantage his 
well-shaped leg, were tied in a dainty bow of rose-colored satin 
ribbon below the knee, and fitted him like a second skin. His 
waistcoat was of rose-colored watered silk, embroidered with silver, 
and which, with its flaps and ample proportions, was half-way hid- 
den by a dress coat of green velvet. This last garment had a sort 
of navy cut, with standing collar richly laced with silver, gold 
buttons in a double row of the size of doubloons, with loose sleeves 
and cuffs heavily laced with silver also. His linen was of the most 
gossamer fineness, the collar thrown slightly back and confined by 
a single clasp of rubies the size of beans, while below was a frill 
of cambric ruffles sparkling with opal studs framed in diamonds. 
The ruffles, too, at his wrist were of the most beautiful point lace, 
secured by royal brilliants, and he was altogether a dandy of such 
princely magnificence that the courtiers of the days of the old 
French monarchy might have taken him for a study. His man- 
ner, likewise, was every way in keeping with his splendid attire ; 
and the ease and grace with which he excused himself to his guests 
for keeping them waiting certainly denoted a knowledge of a 
higher order of breeding and society than that in which his lot 
had been cast. 

From the very moment of his entrance, however, Don Igna§io 
had measured him at a glance. His single glittering eye of jet had 
taken him in from the laced collar of his coat to the buckles of his 
shoes. Hot a jewel in his dress, from the flaming opals in his 
bosom to the brilliant stones at his wrists, and down to the spar- 
kling clusters at his feet, but did his one uneasy optic drink in the 
flash and estimate the value of. Nay, he calculated by instinct 
the weight of the gold buttons on his coat and the price of the 
exquisite lace which fell in snowy folds about his hands. Oh, a 
rare mathematician was Don Igna9io ! What greedy thoughts, 
too, passed through that little Spaniard’s brain ! “Ah,” thought 

he, “ shall I take my debt in those priceless gems, each one the 
ransom of a princess, which the old captain-general may one of 
these days reclaim ? Hola ! no ! Or shall I receive more nego- 
tiable commodities in gold, cochineal, or silks? Well, veremos, 
we shall see ! ” 

The effect produced upon the good Padre Ricardo was altogether 
different. As the captain entered, with all his glorious raiment 


A PIRATES’ DINNER 


69 


upon him, he started back, and, bowing before him as if he were 
St. Paul himself, he seized his superior’s white hand, and kissed 
it with fervent devotion. Not satisfied with this mark of respect, 
he raised his dingy paws, holding his crucifix before him, and 
murmured, in a sort of ecstasy : 

hijo! mi capitano! que hrilla^ite ! '*'* (My son ! my cap- 
tain ! what a brilliant being you are !) 

Singularly in contrast, however, was the effect produced upon - 
the doctor, who merely raised his dark eyes in an abstracted gaze, 
gave a careless and rather contemptuous nod of recognition, and 
then turned to examine one of the richly inlaid cabinets which 
adorned the saloon. All these various phases of sympathy, attrac- 
tion, or contempt flickered like a sunbeam into Captain Brand’s 
reflecting brain as, with a delicately perfumed handkerchief in one 
hand and a gold-enamelled and diamond-encrusted snuffbox in the 
other, he bowed gracefully to his visitors, and seated himself at 
table. 

The table was now rolled out into the centre of the saloon, laid 
with a snowy white damask cloth, and covered with the equipage 
for a banquet. At either corner were noble branches of solid 
silver candelabra, which would have graced an altar, as perhaps 
they had, and holding clusters of wax lights, which shed their rays 
over the display below. In the centre arose a huge epergne of 
silver, fashioned into the shape of a drooping palm-tree, whose 
leaves were of frosted silver, and about the trunk played a wilder- 
ness of monkeys. Beneath, around the board, were cut-glass 
decanters, flat, bulbous flasks of colored Bohemian glass, crystal 
goblets, delicate and almost shadowy wine-cups fi'om Venice, 
silver wine-coolers, all mingled with a heterogeneous collection of 
rare china and silver dishes. Such wines, too, as filled those 
vessels ! not a prince or magnate in all the lands where the vine is 
planted could boast of so rare and exquisite a collection. Pure, 
thin, rain-water Madeira, full three-score years in bottle ! Pale, 
limpid port, whose color had long since gone with age, and left only 
the musk-like odor ; flasks of Johannisberg of pearly light ; bottles 
of Tokay for lips of cardinals ; tall, slim stems of the taper flasks 
of the Rhine ; while the ruby hues of wine from the Rhone stood 
clustering about amid pyramids of pineapples, oranges, and ba- 
nanas, and all loading the air of the saloon with their delicious 
fragrance. 

When the party had become fairly seated around the board, and 


VO CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 

while the host was bailing out the soup from an enormous silver 
tureen with a teacup, — for it did not appear that he had ever been 
presented in the usual way with a ladle, — fishing out the floating 
morsels of rich callipee, with the delicate frills of his sleeves turned 
back, he began the conversation in the Castilian language : 

“ Well, amigos, we are taking our last feast together, I fear, 
on this little cluster of rocks for a long time to come.” 

“ How ! ” exclaimed the padre, as he stuffed a wedge of turtle 
fat in his oily mouth, and opened his round black e^^es to their 
fullest extent in manifest surprise. ‘‘ Como, mi hijoP'* he re- 
peated, as he passed a dirty paw over his smooth chin and looked 
enquiringly. 

“ Yes, holy father, our good friend Don Igna9io, here, has brought 
us somewhat startling intelligence. (Capital soup, this. I shall 
give Babette a dollar.) Yes, the eagles and vultures are after us ; 
all the West India fleet ; the Lord only knows how many ships, and 
brigs, and gun-boats. (A glass of Madeira with you, doctor ? ” 
wiping his thin lips with a corner of the damask table-cloth as he 
spoke.) ‘‘And they have tampered, too, with my old friends the 
custom-house people. (Take away the tureen, Babette.) And, in 
point of fact, I shouldn’t be the least surprised to see a swarm of 
those navy gentlemen off the reef here at any moment. (A sharp 
knife, Babette, for these teal — a duck should be cut, not torn. Try 
that Moselle, Don Igna9io ; I know your fancy for light wines. 
This was given me by a captain — ’pon my soul, I forget his name. 
He had such a pretty wife, Mme. Mathilde ” — glancing at the 
frame of miniatures on the wall ; “ sweet creature she was ; took 
quite a fancy for me, I believe, and might have been sitting here 
this moment, but a — really I forget her other name. However, it 
makes no difference : the wine is called Moselle.) ” 

Now, be it here observed that Don Igna9io drank very little wine 
or stimulants of any sort, and never by any chance a drop from any 
vessel which, with his single bright eye, he did not see his host 
first indulge in. This self-imposed sacrifice may have been owing 
to his diffidence, or modesty, or deference to Captain Brand, or, 
perhaps, other and private reasons of his own ; but yet he never 
broke through that rule of politeness and abstemiousness. Some- 
times, indeed, he carried his principles so far as to refuse a meat 
or the fruits which his host had not partaken of, and always with 
a slow shake of his brown forefinger, as if he did not like even to 
smell the dish presented to him. 


A PIRATES’ DINNER 


1 \ 


“What, not even a sip of that nectar, compadre mio f ” 

The compadre shook his digit, and observed that drinking nectar 
sometimes made people sick. 

The captain laughed gayly, and said : “ Bah ! learning to drink 
does the harm, and not the art, when properly acquired.” 

During all the foregoing interlude the doctor remained in his 
grave, calm humor, and only when the captain alluded to the lady 
whose husband’s name escaped him did he show signs of interest. 
Tlien his eye followed the look toward the miniature, and his jaws 
came together with a slight, grating spasm. 

Padre Ricardo, however, was in excellent sympathetic spirits, 
eating and drinking like a glutton of all within his reach, and 
turning his full eyes at times, as if to a deity, upon his friend the 
captain. Once he spoke : 

“But, my son, you are talking of leaving this quiet retreat, 
where we have passed so many happy hours.” 

“ Yes, friend of my soul. Those fellows with commissions, and 
pennants at their mast-heads, and guns, and what not, seem deter- 
mined to do us a mischief.” The devout padre crossed himself, 
and pressed the crucifix to his greasy lips. “ Ay, they would no 
doubt arraign us before some one of their legal tribunals. Put us 
in prison, perhaps ; or maybe give us a slight squeeze in a rope or 
iron collar.” 

The padre groaned audibly and dropped the wing of a teal he 
was gnawing, forgetting, strange as it may seem, to cross himself. 

“ATo^gt, mi padre! cheer up ! We are worth a million of dead 
men yet. The world is wide, the sea open, and with a stout plank 
under our feet and one of these fellows ” — here he balanced a long 
carving-knife, dripping with blood-red gravy, in his hand — “ in 
our belts, who can stop us ? ” 

There was the cold, ferocious-eyed gleam of a dying shark in the 
speaker’s eyes as he went on with his carving ; but the priest 
gave a jerk of trepidation with his chin, and appeared anxious to 
hear more. 

“Don Ignayio, try a bit of this roast guana ; it’s quite white 
and tender. No ? Babette, give me some of that rabbit stew.” 
The one-eyed individual was likewise helped to some of that 
savory ragout, and proceeded to pick the bones with much care 
and deliberation. 

^tiW triste, mj padre ? Come, come, this will never do. Join 
me in a bumper of this generous old port. Bueno ! may we attain 


12 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


the same age ! By the way, where did this rich stuff come from ?” 
holding up the decanter between the light and his face as he spoke, 

Don Ignayio’s glittering optic pierced clear through the light 
ruby medium of the wine, cut-glass decanter and all, as he furtively 
watched his host, and was prepared to dodge in case the heavy 
vessel should slip out of the captain’s hand. Such things had 
happened, and might again ; besides, a hard flint substance with a 
multitude of sharp projections, two or three inches thick and five 
or six pounds in weight, falling from a height on a man’s head 
might kill him. The Don thought of all this, and twitched some- 
thing up his sleeve with his hand under the table. But Captain 
Brand, it seemed, had no intention of smashing his elegant dinner-set 
of glass, and, putting down the decanter, and raising a finger to his 
forehead, he said : “ How did that wine come into my possession ?” 

“Somebody gave it to you, perhaps. Quien sabeP^ (Who 
knows?) suggested Don Ignayio. 

Without heeding the interruption the captain’s eye rested on 
the brilliant snuffbox on the table beside him, where the letter L 
was set in diamonds and blue enamel on the back, and, catching it, 
with a rap, his face lighted up, and as he took a pinch and passed 
the box to the padre he exclaimed : 

“ Ah ! now I remember — my old friend the Portuguese countess 
from Oporto. Dios de mi almaP'^ (God of my soul!) “what a 
stately beauty was her daughter 1 ” 

Here Captain Brand sneezed, and, drawing a delicately perfumed 
lace handkerchief from his waistcoat pocket, blew his nose. 
Meanwhile the box went round the table ; Padre Ricardo took a 
huge pinch with his dirty fingers, and feasted his eyes upon the 
precious lid. The doctor scarcely gave the elegant bawble a glance 
as he helped himself. The Don, however, examined it with the 
eye of a connoisseur, and not only that, but threw a spark at the 
captain’s flashy waistcoat, and thought he detected some other 
article in the capacious pockets mce the handkerchief. Perhaps 
he may have been mistaken, and perhaps not, though he was so 
very suspicious an old Adllain that he sometimes did his friends 
injustice. Nor did he put his thin brown fingers, with the few 
grains of snuff he had dipped from the box, to his sheepskin nostrils 
till he had watched the effect it had produced on those around 
him. 

“ Ah ! my friends, I remember distinctly now all about it,” con- 
tinued the captain, as he returned the kerchief and shook a few 


A PIRATES’ DINNER 


73 


specks of the titillating dust from his point-lace sleeve ; “ it is 
about three years ago, just before you came to live with me, padre, 
that we fell in with a large ship bound to Porto Rico. She had 
been disabled in an awful hurricane, which had taken two of her 
masts clean off at the decks, and was leaking badly. We, too, 
had been a little hurt in the same gale ; and, having made a pretty 
good season, I was anxious to get back here and give the crew a 
rest. Well, we made out the ship about an hour before sunset, and 
it was quite dark before we came up with her. There she lay, 
rolling like a log, though there was not much sea on, and we could 
hear her chain-pumps clanking, and saw the water spouting out 
from her scuppers as pure almost as it went into her hold. As we 
came up alongside they hailed me for assistance, and said the ship 
was sinking, and could not live till morning. 

“ Of course I could give them no actual assistance, situated as I 
was ” — here the narrator smiled as he glanced round upon his 
guests ; ‘‘ it would have been simply absurd, you know, the idea of 
my putting men on board to keep her afloat for the nearest gibbet. 
Bah! I did not dream of such ridiculous nonsense. However, I 
determined to make her a visit, and, if there should be any thing to 
save from the wreck in an undamaged condition, why, I should 
look around. 

“ Not too much of that port, mi padre ; think of your rheuma- 
tism in the morning ! Doctor, you don’t drink ! 

“ Well, going on board, I found two lady passengers, the wife 
and daughter of an old judge of the island of Porto Rico, with half 
a dozen servants, who were all screaming and praying, and beseech- 
ing me to save them — all but one, a tall, graceful girl, with a large 
India shawl wrapped around her shoulders, her white arms glancing 
through the folds, and a pair of dark, liquid, almond-shaped eyes 
such as I had never before seen. The fact is, my friends, I had 
always before fancied blue. But there stood this girl, with eyes 
like a wounded stag, leaning up against the weather bulwarks near 
the open cabin door. 

“ Babette, take away all but the wine and fruit, and bring 
fire. Pass that box this way, if you please, compadre. Thank 
you.” 

Don Igna9io seemed to have an affection for the trifle, and had 
counted the brilliants over and over again, and made a mental cal- 
culation of their weight and value ; and when he did pass it as he 
was desired, his greedy eye followed it with fascination. 


14 : 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“ Yes, it’s very pretty, and I set a great store by it,” parenthe- 
sized the host, as he resumed his tale. 

“ The girl never screamed, or even spoke, and amid all the 
hubbub of a drunken skipper and a disorderly crew she remained 
quiet and unmoved. To assure the people, I told them that I 
would stay by the ship and do what I could for them. At this the 
old lady clasped me around the neck, and kissed me, and blubbered 
over me more than ever she did, I imagine, to the old Spanish 
judge, her husband — imploring me, too, by all the saints she could 
think of, to take herself and daughter out of the sinking vessel at 
once. You may believe that I would much rather have been 
treated in that way by the lovely girl with the wonderful eyes 
instead of the fat, rancid old woman beside her ; but there was no 
help for it just then, and so I consented, with all the professions of 
sympathy I could make, to do as she desired.” 

Here the captain lit a pure Havana, and, after a few puffs and 
a sip of port, continued. 


CHAPTER XV 

DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER 

“ At last she started up. 

And gazed on the vacant air 
With a look of awe, as if she saw 
Some dreadful phantom there.” 

“No sooner had I assured the old lady that I would transfer 
them to my vessel than her daughter made a step forward, and, let- 
ting her shawl fall upon the deck, she seized my hand with both 
of hers, and said, in a low contralto voice : 

“ Heaven bless you, senor / ” 

“By the cestus of Venus, Caballeros^ the pressure of that girl’s 
hand, and the deep, speaking look of gratitude she gave me out of 
her liquid eyes, quite did my business ! ” 

“ And the senorita’s, too, I think,” chimed in the one-eyed com- 
mander, as he wagged his uneasy head at the narrator. 

Quien (Who knows ?) went on Captain Brand. “At 

all events, I raised her soft patrician hand to my lips and kissed it 
respectfully. Ha ! I noticed, too, as I released her round, slender 
fingers, that she wore a sapphire of great brilliancy — ay, here it is 
now. I keep it in remembrance of the girl.” 


DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER 


75 


Saying this, the host shook back the lace ruffles of his sleeve, and, 
crooking his little finger, exhibited the jewel to his guests. 

“ Go on, my son,” said the padre, as his sensual face expressed 
his satisfaction at the recital. “ Yamonos / ” 

“ My holy father,” responded the narrator, ‘‘ beware of that 
wine-flask ! You have grand mass to-morrow; it is the feast of 
our patron saint, you know.” 

Si/ si! hijo mio! your padre is always ready,” crossing him- 
self in a half-tipsy way as he spoke. “ Yamonos ! ” The doctor 
looked as cold as marble, and said not a word. 

“ Well, gentlemen,” went on Captain Brand, ‘‘I soon got that 
ship in a tolerably wholesome state of command. I made my trusty 
old boatswain, Pedillo, lock the fuddled skipper up sound and 
tight in his own state-room, and the rest of my men took a few 
rope’s ends and belted the lubberly crew until they went to work 
at the pumps with renewed vigor. I also insisted upon the scared 
male servants of the passengers lending a hand at that innocent 
recreation, for, you see, I had no intention of letting the ship go 
down ” 

“ With the Capitano Brand in her,” interrupted Senor Sanchez. 

“ No, by no manner of means ; for the ship, I felt, was settling 
fast, and I could hear the loose cargo, which had broken adrift 
below in the main hold, playing the devil’s own game, smashing and 
crushing from side to side as the vessel rolled, and coming in con- 
tact with the stanchions and beams, with a surging swash of water, 
too, which told the tale without the trouble of breaking open the 
hatches. I took, however, the precaution to run my eye over the 
manifest to see if, perchance, there was any treasure in the after- 
run or anywhere else, as, in case there had been, I should have 
made some little effort to get at it. However, there was nothing 
on board but wine, dried fruits, and heavy bale goods, not worth 
the time or trouble, in the aspect of affairs at that time, to save as 
much as a single cask or a drum of prunes. I glanced, too, at the 
clearance list, and saw that the names of the passengers were La 
Senora Luisa Lavarona and the Senorita Lucia, lady and daughter, 
with half a dozen orders and titles, of the judge in Puerto Rico. 
Bueno ! roll me an orange, if you please, doctor. Ah ! gracias, 
thanks.” 

The doctor rolled the orange, and, had it been a grape-shot or 
any other iron missile, its aim would have gone straight through 
the captain’s body just above his left waistcoat pocket. 


76 


CAPTAIN BBAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“ In the meanwhile the old lady rushed around in a tremendous 
hurry, in and out of the cabin, losing her balance occasionally in 
the lurches, ordering her maids to pull out trunks and boxes on to 
the deck ; then giving me a hug to relieve her feelings, and pray- 
ing and crying between whiles in the most whimsical manner. 
Not contented either with getting out a pile of luggage and chests 
that would have swamped a jolly-boat, she insisted upon waiting 
until a locker was broken open in the cabin pantry for the purpose 
of rescuing six cases of old port-wine, which had been, she told me, 
sent as a present from the Archbishop of Lisbon to his friend the 
judge. At this juncture I persuaded her to send her daughter and 
a few light articles first on board my vessel, when the boat would 
then return for herself and the remainder of their property. 
Accordingly, I carefully wrapped the lovely girl in shawls and 
cloaks, and got her over the side and down into my boat, pitched 
a few light caskets and cases in after the young beauty, and then, 
with a quiet word or two into Pedillo’s sharp ear, the boat shoved 
off. I suppose it may have been half an hour before my boat 
returned, and then I learned from the coxswain that he had shown 
his charge down into my private cabin, and she appeared as com- 
fortable and resigned as possible. Well, we made quick work of 
it now — tumbled a good many things into the boat, when I myself 
got in to receive the old lady and her retinue. By the way, 
among the articles were boxes of wine — this is some of it,” — tap- 
ping the decanter, now nearly empty from the attacks of the 
priest, — “and in my opinion it does great credit to the taste and 
judgment of that venerable archbishop.” • 

Ave purissima / said the padre with a hiccough ; “I shall be 
a bishop myself one of these days. Ora pro nohis!^^ 

“You’ll be a cardinal,” gibed in the doctor, “if swilling wine 
will do it.” 

Captain Brand went on with his narrative : 

“ Where was I ? Oh, ah ! We were waiting alongside the ship, 
with her lower chain-plates not a foot above water, for the Donna 
to be hoisted over the rail, since she would not permit any of her 
attendants to precede her — though Heaven knows they were anx- 
ious enough to do so. By this time, too, after my men had left the 
deck of the ship, the crew had somehow got hold of a barrel of 
wine, and, letting the pumps work themselves, were guzzling away 
in grand style. I began to lose patience at last, and shouted to the 
old lady to come at once, or I should be compelled to leave her. 


DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER 


77 


She merely leaned over the rail, however, and chattered forth that 
all she had in the world was at my service, — of course figuratively 
she meant, — but she must stay another minute to find a jar of pre- 
served ginger, which was her only cure for the colic.” 

“ You didn’t take the offer of the old lady as a figure of speech, 
I presume ? ” asked the doctor. 

“ No ! ” muttered the one-eyed old wretch, with a sneer. “ And 
that jar of ginger spared her any more attacks of colic.” 

“ Caballeros, you are both right. I did accept the gift of her 
worldly goods in the frank spirit in which it was offered, without 
any reservation ; and, to my almost certain knowledge, the Senora 
Lavarona was never more troubled with illness of any kind. 

‘‘The fact was that, finding the ship fast sinking, and her crew 
becoming boisterous and rebellious as the imminent danger burst 
upon them, they proposed, since their own boats were stove, to take 
possession of mine. That was a joke, to be sure ! A dozen drunken 
swabs wdth naked hands to capture ten of the old Centipede^s 
picked men, with a pistol and knife each under their shirts ; and,” 
— here the speaker laughed heartily, — “ and Captain Brand beside 
them ! Diavolo ! what silly people there are in this world ! ” 

The good padre joined his superior in this ebullition of feeling, 
and seemed to enjoy the joke immensely, rolling his goggle eyes 
and head from side to side, kissing his crucifix, and exclaiming, 
with devotion : 

“ Que hombre es eso / ” (What a man he is ! ) 

*^We\],senores, the next minute we let go the painter and floated 
astern past the ship’s counter, and a few strokes of the oar-blades 
sent us dancing away to leeward, where the schooner was lying 
with her main-sail up, and the jib-sheet hauled well to windward. 
We made no unnecessary noise in getting alongside, and it took no 
great time to get the boat clear, a tackle hooked on, and to swing 
her on board over the long gun. Then we drew aft the sheets, set 
the foresail, and the Centipede was once more reeling off the knots 
on her course.” 

“ But the ship, my son ? ” 

“ Why, my padre, I was so busy attending to the schooner, and 
afterward going below to break the sad news to my lovely dark- 
eyed passenger of the loss of her mother, that I had no time to 
devote to the ship. Pedillo, however, told me that he heard a 
good deal of frantic shrieking, and prayers, and cursing, with, for 
a little while, the renewed clank of the chain-pumps, but after that 


78 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


we had got too far to windward to hear more. About midnight, 
though, Pedillo and some of the watch thought they saw a white 
shower of foam, like a breaking wave, and a great commotion in the 
water, but that was all. So, you see, what really became of that 
old craft we do not positively know ; though for a long time after- 
ward I read the marine list very attentively, yet I never saw any 
accounts of her arrival at her destination. 

Perhaps,” added Captain Brand, with a peculiar smile, as he ^ 
lit a fresh cigar, “ her arrival may have escaped my notice, as I 
hope it may, though I think not.” 

Don Ignayio intimated, by waving his forefinger to and fro, that 
such a hope had no possible foundation in fact ; and he stated, too, 
that he knew the underwriters had paid the full insurance on the 
missing ship. 

“ Ah ! well, that seems to settle the matter, truly,” murmured the 
captain, as if he had long entertained painful doubts on the subject, 
and now his mind was finally relieved. 

“ But, hijo mio ! Son of mine ! La miorita ” — hiccough — “ with 
the almond-shaped eyes — santissima / — hie — “how did she bear 
the — death of her ” — hie — “ mother ? ” 

For Dios ! padre y there was a scene which would have drawn 
tears from a ” 

“ Pirate,” suggested the doctor. 

The padre blubbered outright, and his round, tipsy eyes nearly 
popped out of his head. 

“ Ay, monsieur, even from mine ! But to go back a little. 
When I had got all snug on board the schooner, I went below, and 
moved softly on tiptoe along the passage to the door of my beau- 
tiful cabin. 

“You remember, amigo, said the narrator, turning toward Don 
Igna9io, “how that cabin was fitted, and how much it cost to do 
it ? I think you paid the bill for me ? No ? ” 

Oh, yes. Captain Brand was quite right. Don Igna9io remem- 
bered it well, and the bill was a thousand gold ounces, sixteen 
thousand hard silver dollars ; and by no means dear at that, for the 
Don never allowed any body to cheat him. 

“ Cheats himself, though, sometimes. Don’t charge more than 
the usual commission ! ” 

The one-eyed usurer looked wicked at this remark, but he said 
nothing, being occupied at the moment rolling up a paper cigar 
with one hand, and wetting the brown forefinger of the other. 


DBOWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER 


19 


‘‘Well, Caballeros, I peeped through the lattice- work of the 
cabin door, and there reclined my pretty prize, — I recall her as if it 
were yesterday, — on one of the large blue satin damask lounges of 
the after- transoms. Her head rested on one of her round ivory 
arms, half hidden in the luxurious pillows ; her shawl, too, was 
thrown back ; and with a somewhat disordered dress, and a mass 
of glossy hair clustering in ringlets about her neck and white 
shoulders, I thought then, as I do now, that she was a paragon of 
loveliness. I saw her, as she thus reclined, by the light of a large 
shaded crystal lamp, which hung by silver chains from the cabin 
beams, and shed a rose-tinted effulgence over the whole apartment. 
When I first approached the door, the girl was looking out of her 
own large, liquid lamps, so superbly framed in a heavy fringe of 
dark lashes, in evident curiosity around the elegant cabin. Her 
looks wandered from the Turkey carpet on the floor to the beautiful 
silk hangings, the exquisite set of pearl inlaid ebony furniture, the 
display of knick-knacks, and Dresden porcelain panels of the sides, 
and, in fact, nothing seemed to escape her ; and the good taste of 
the fittings evidently met her approbation. At times, too, she ~ 
would turn her gaze out of the narrow little window of the stern 
and peer anxiously over the vessel’s wake, which by this time was 
skimming along like a wild-duck, and leaving countless bubbles 
behind her. At the first sound I made, however, in opening the 
door, she started up and stepped forward to meet me. 

‘“Oh, Senor Capitano, mi madre/^^^ (my mother !) “‘What 
detains her ? We seem to be going very fast through the water ! ’ 

“ I gently took the girl’s outstretched hands and led her back to 
the cushioned transom. Then I told her, as kindly as I could, that 
I did all in my power to save her good mother, but that the crew 
had mutinied — they had taken possession of the unfortunate ship — 
great confusion existed — and as I feared, you know, that my own 
boat would be swamped by remaining longer alongside, I was 
compelled to leave her to her fate. 

“ ‘ But my mother, senor! ’ exclaimed the girl with anguish ; 

‘ she was saved ? ’ 

“ ‘ No, senorita,^ I said, ‘ she went down with the ship ; but the 
last words she uttered, — that is, to me, — were to invoke a blessing 
on my head, and to consign all she possessed to my care.’ The poor 
thing swooned away as I uttered these words, and it was a long 
time before she came to again. When she did, however, regain 
consciousness, tears came to her relief, and I did all I could to soothe 


80 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


her distress by telling her that, if the wind came fair, she would in 
the course of a few days be restored to her father.” 

“ But the wind didn’t come fair, eh ? ” broke in Don Igna9io, 
and she didn’t see ” 

ISTo, amigo, the wind held steady from the opposite quarter, 
and I thought it better not to beat up with a fished fore-mast, and 
all that — and a — she did not see her father.” 

Captain Brand here wetted his thin lips with a few sips of wine, 
and said : “Babette, bring coffee ! ” and resumed his story : 

‘‘ When the girl became a little more calm, I induced her to retire 
to my state-room, where I left her to sob herself to sleep. (Don’t 
spill that coffee, Babette, and put the liqueurs on the table. There, 
that will do, old lady.) 

“Well, senores, the next morning my pretty prize was too ill to 
leave her room ; but, as I handed her a cup of chocolate through 
the door-curtains, she thanked me with much gratitude for what I 
had done, and knew that her dear father, the judge, would bless me.” 

“ So he will,” snarled the one-eyed old rascal, “ if he ever catches 
you, when he draws the black cap over your head.” 

“ Possibly he may, though perhaps it will be some considerable 
time before he has that pleasure.” 

“ Ah ! cuidado, hico mio ! Take care of yourself, my son,” hie- ■ 
coughed the priest, as he crossed himself. The captain gave a 
light laugh, sipped his coffee, and went on as if a dungeon, scaffold, 
and noose were the last things he ever thought of: 

“ I amused myself during the day in looking over the trunks, 
caskets, and what not we had saved from the sinking trader — 
presented to me, as you know, by the old lady who was on board. 
There were, of course, a great quantity of ladies’ dresses, and a 
good many jewels and trinkets — among the latter this fine snuff- 
box here, which our friend Don Igna9io so much admires, and which 
I set aside as an especial testimonial of the old lady’s regard. Try 
another pinch, amigo? No? Bueno! I caused what I believed 
to be the daughter’s elegant raiment to be placed in the after- 
cabin. For three days I never even saw my pretty passenger, 
though I heard her low, sweet voice occasionally when I laid out 
something for her to eat in the adjoining cabin. She sung, too, 
some little sad songs with a voice which vibrated upon my ear like 
the notes of an ^olian harp sighing in the night wind. Dios ! 
how I regretted then and afterward that I did not have a cabinet 
piano I ” 


DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER 


81 


‘‘ Presented to you,” suggested the doctor. 

“Yes, presented to me, so that she might have touched the keys 
with those ivory and rose-tipped fingers. 

“ So the time passed, the schooner flying on under whole sails, 
the wind about two points free, and the weather as fine as silk. It 
was the fourth evening, I think, after parting with the Oporto 
trader that I induced my fair passenger to come on deck and take 
a little breath of sea-air. You Avill observe, cahalleros^ that I did 
not make this suggestion in the daytime, because the Centipede's 
crew, you know, were rather numerous, and some of them not so 
handsome in point of personal looks as ladies at all times care to 
behold. Besides, there were certain things about the decks — racks 
of cutlasses, lockers of musketry along the rail, and a long brass 
twelve-pounder, which is not altogether hidden by the boat, you 
know, and might have given rise to a little curiosity, or maybe sus- 
picion, even in the mind of a girl, as to our character, pursuits, and 
so forth, which I should have been puzzled to answer. Therefore 
I chose a clear starlight night to pay my homage, and accordingly 
I went below about four bells of the first watch to escort the little 
lady to the deck. She was dressed, and waiting for me in the 
cabin ; and if I was so struck with her beauty when I first saw her, 
my heart thumped now against my ribs like a volley of musket- 
balls against an oak plank. She wore a black silk robe, such as 
Spanish women wear at early mass, and around the back part of 
her head — where the hair was gathered in a glossy knot, and 
secured by a gold bodkin — fell the heavy folds of a black lace 
mantilla, the lower end fastened sash fashion around her lithe 
waist. She stepped, too, like a queen on a pair of slim, long, 
delicate feet, with arched ball and instep, as if she were in com- 
mand of the schooner. 

“ By my right arm ! ” exclaimed Captain Brand, shaking that - 
member aloft in a glorious fit of enthusiasm, “ I am quite sure she 
had conquered me, and that was more than half the battle ! 

“ Well, I led her to the quarter-deck, where some cushions and 
flags had been placed for her near the weather taffrail, and where 
she sat down. The schooner was at the time under the two gaff- 
top-sails, the main-boom and sheets eased off a little, those long 
masts, with the sticks above them running clear away up the 
sky, almost out of sight, bending like whalebone, and reeling over 
the long swell when the breeze freshened ; and not a sound to be 
heard save now and then a light creak from the main-boom as the 
6 


82 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


broad, white sail strained flat and taut over to leeward, or the rush 
of the water as it came hissing along from her sharp, clean bows, 
with a noise like a breeze through the leaves of a forest, away off 
over the counter into luminous sparkles as it swished out into our 
wake. The Centipede was indeed doing her best, and you all know 
what that is, when we have been chased many and many a time by 
some of the fastest cruisers going. 

“ You remember, Don Igna9io, how the Jxino frigate nearly ran 
us under, and yet never gained a fathom on us in nine hours ? ” 

“ Ay, amigo ; but, had she not carried away her fore-top-mast, 
in another hour there would have been nothing left of you afloat 
but a — hencoop, perhaps.” 

“ Quien sahe, compadre ? If hads had been shads, you would 
have had fish for your breakfast,” rejoined the narrator ; and then, 
throwing back the lapels of his green velvet coat with an air of 
gentlemanly satisfaction, he hooked his thumbs in the armholes of 
his fine waistcoat, and went on : 

“Well, senores^ the graceful girl beside me scarcely spoke for 
nearly half an hour. I divined, however, what her thoughts 
might have been in dwelling on the painful scenes she had 
recently witnessed, and I held my peace also ; for, you see, I have 
had considerable experience with women, and I have ever found 
that a man loses more by talking than by remaining watchful and 
attentive.” 

Captain Brand looked, as he gave utterance to this philosophical 
sentiment, as if he were a thirsty, cold-eyed tiger, lying in wait to 
spring upon an unwary passer-by. 

“ Yes, I waited, until at last she spoke. 

“ ‘ Capitano^ she said, ' what a beautiful vessel you command, 
and how fast she sails ! ’ 

“ What I replied, my friends, is neither here nor there ; but I 
sunk down on the cushions beside the lovely girl, and poured out 
such a torrent of passionate words — which I really felt, too, at the 
time — as I don’t think I ever uttered before or since. She was 
a little startled and nervous at first, but after a while I saw her 
stately head droop to one side till it rested on m}^ shoulder. I stole 
my arm around her yielding waist and clasped her to my breast.” 

Here Captain Brand looked as if the tiger had already sprung 
upon the passer-by, and was sucking the blood with Ids claws 
buried deep into the carcass. 

“ ‘ Senor^ she murmured, in the low, sweet, plaintive note of a 


DROWNING A MOTHER TO MURDER A DAUGHTER 


83 


nightingale, ‘I am a young and inexperienced girl, of an old and 
noble family ; you have saved my life ; my mother is gone, and 
I have no one to advise with, and, if my dear father smiles upon 
my choice, I will marry you ; but do not, I implore you, deceive 
me ! ’ ” 

“ And you did not deceive her, I hope ? ” broke in the doctor, 
with a shiver of light from his determined eyes that was almost 
painful to see, so earnest and terrible it was, as he leaned forward 
with both of his clinched hands quivering nervously on the table. 

Captain Brand looked at the doctor with rather a suspicious ^ 
stare, and, letting his thumbs drop from his armpits till they rested 
on the flaps of his waistcoat pockets, he replied, in a careless tone : 

“ Oh, no, monsieur, I never deceived — a — that is to say, inten- 
tionally deceived a woman in all my life ! ” 

“ Let us hear more, my son,” said the priest thickly, who had 
now woke up from a short nap. 

Bueno, ” continued the narrator, as he tossed off a 

thimbleful of maraschino from a wicker-bound square bottle after 
his coffee. “ Well, gentlemen, the young Portuguese damsel, 
Senorita Lucia, and I sat there under the weather rail till the first 
faint streaks of early dawn in the tropics began to announce the 
coming of the gray morning. Then she arose, ahd, leaning with a 
soft pressure on my arm, I took her to her cabin, kissed her sweet 
hands, and bade her good-night.” 

At this stage of the narrative Captain Brand threw himself tri-^ 
umphantly back in his large Manila chair, and ran his white, mus- 
cular hands through his dry, light hair. Ay ! the tiger had clutched 
his prey. An unprotected, young, and lovely girl had been won 
and lost, and her palpitating heart was soon to be torn from her 
tender body. 


84 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


CHAPTER XVI 

NUPTIALS OF THE GIRL WITH DARK EYES 

“ With a pint and a quarter of holy water 
He made the sacred sign, 

And he dashed the whole on the only daughter 
Of old Plantagenet’s line 1 ” 

“ But the count he felt the nervous work 
No more than any polygamous Turk, 

Or bold piratical skipper, 

Who, during his buccaneering search, 

Would as soon engage a ‘ hand ’ at church 
As a hand on board his clipper.!’ 

The captain got up from his chair, stepped to the settee, and, 
pulling the signal-cord on the wall, held a short dialogue with the 
man at the station ; then, saying, in a low, sharp whisper, through 
the tube : ‘‘ A bright lookout, Pedro ! ” he resumed his place at the 
table. The doctor had, in the meanwhile, got up and gone to the 
veranda, where, swinging in a Yucatan grass hammock, shielded 
from the night wind, lay his little patient sleeping soundly. Care- 
fully closing the curtains again around him, he returned to his place. 
The padre was now all awake again, with his thick lips open, wait- 
ing for the captain to go on with his story. As for Don Igna9io, 
he never stirred body or limb, but his eye travelled about perpetually, 
and he observed the movements of his companions all at the same 
time. Still the hoarse roar of the pirates in their carouse arose 
from the covered sheds in the calm night, and the two solitary 
lights from each mast-head of the felucca and schooner twinkled 
above the basin of the inlet. 

“ And now, amigos^"' began again Captain Brand, after he had 
assured himself that all was going on as he could wish without, 
“I shall inform you of the sequel of my adventure with the 
Sehorita Lucia. The evening after the night on which I had 
declared my passion we were seated at dinner in the after-cabin. 
Such a choice little dinner, too, as only our late friend Lascar 
Joe could prepare ! Poor fellow, he’ll never make another of 
those famous curries, though, no doubt, he’ll find fire and pepper 
enough where he is, if the devil chooses to employ him. What 


NUPTIALS OF THE GIEL WITH DARK EYES 


85 


a neat hand he was, too, with that spiral-bladed Malay creese of 
his ! Ah ! well — we were sitting over the dessert, and I was 
relating to my pretty passenger some account of my early days, and 
of my lady mother and my old squire of a father, omitting, per- 
haps, some few uninteresting details ” 

Here the old commander of the felucca cackled, and his blackj* 
beady eye glittered as the thought flashed through his head as to 
what details his villanous compeer had omitted — how he forged his 
old father’s name, which brought down his gray hairs in sorrow 
and disgrace to the grave ; and how his poor mother, too, died of 
grief, together with other bitter memories, all of which Captain 
Brand, the pirate, omitted to mention. 

“ Yes, I related, likewise, some of my early privateering advent- 
ures, when all the broad Atlantic was alive with the fleets of France, 
England, and Spain ; how I was captured by a Spanish brigan- 
tine,” — omitting again to state that he got up a mutiny with the 
crew of that brigantine, poniarded the captain and mate in their 
sleep, and, assuming command of the vessel, changed her colors for 
a black flag, and began his career as a pirate in the Caribbean 
Sea, — “ and how I escaped. To all this she listened with great 
interest, her large eyes dilating and her bosom swelling with 
sympathy as I proceeded, when suddenly the cabin door opened, 
and my ugly friend Pedillo put his head in and gave me a warning 
nod.” 

“ ‘ What is it ? ’ I said rather sharply to Pedillo ; ‘ and how 
dare you intrude inside my cabin ? ’ I fear, too, that I came very 
near doing a mischief to my boatswain ; for I am rather impulsive 
at times, and by the merest accident I happened to have a small 
pistol in my pocket.” 

Don Igna9io twitched his sleeve, and looked as if he believed 
such accidents as pistols being found in the narrator’s pockets 
happened quite often. 

“ ‘ Senary^ said Pedillo, ‘ there are two sail standing out from 
the lee of Culebra Island, and one of them appears to be a 
large ’ 

“ I stopped any farther particulars from the lips of my subordi- 
nate by a motion of my finger, and then, kissing the hands of the 
girl, who was somewhat surprised at what had transpired, I left 
the cabin and jumped on deck. 

‘‘The schooner was now running down through the Virgin’s 
Passage, between St. Thomas and Porto Rico, with a fine breeze on 


86 


CAPTAIN BBAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


the quarter, and the sun was just sinking behind the last-named 
island. I snatched a spy-glass from the rail and looked ahead. 
There, sure enough, was a sixteen-gun brig, on the starboard tack,, 
heading across our track, and a large frigate under single-reefed 
top-sails stretching away over to the opposite shores of Culebra, 
while they were telegraphing bunting one with another as fast as 
the bright-colored flags could talk. And, as luck would have it, as 
I swept the glass round, what should I see but a long, rakish corvette 
in company with a huge whale of a line-of-battle ship, with her 
double tier of ports glimmering away in the slanting rays of the 
sun, both on the wind, and coming out from under the lee of 
Culebra Point, just a mile or two astern of us. By the blood of 
Barabbas, caballeros, we were in a trap for wolves, and the hounds 
were in full cry ! I immediately, however, luffed the schooner up, 
and steered boldly for the frigate ; and, as a puff of smoke spouted 
out from the lee bow of the admiral to windward, and before the 
boom of the gun’s report reached us, I hoisted American colors. 
Seeing this, the brig hove in stays, and, perhaps being ordered to 
board me, came staggering along on the other tack across our fore- 
foot, while the frigate went round, too, and held her wind toward 
her consorts to windward. Now, this was just the disposition 
which I wanted of the vessels, and it could not have been done 
better for my plans had I been the admiral of the squadron. In 
less than a quarter of an hour the brig — and no great things she 
was, with a contemptible battery, as I could see, of short car- 
ronades — hove aback a little on the bow of the schooner, and gave 
us a warning of a twenty-four-pound shot across our forefoot to 
heave to also, at the same time hoisting the English ensign. 

“ So ho ! ” ejaculated Captain Brand, as he twisted the point of 
his nose, accompanied by a malevolent scowl, “ senores^ I at once 
hauled flat aft the foresail, dropped the main-peak, and put the 
helm up, as if to round to under the brig’s stern ; whereupon my 
man-of-war friend dropped a cutter into the water, and she had 
just shoved off in readiness to board me when, before you could 
light a paper cigar, I ran up the main-peak, got a pull of the sheets, 
and the Centipede was off again like a shark with his fin above 
water, heading for the narrow passage between Culebra and Crab 
islands. It was at least five minutes before that stupid brig could 
believe his eyes, and ten more before he got hold of the boat again, 
when she filled away and began to pop gun after gun at me as fast 
as he could bring his battery to bear. There was only one shot 


NUPTIALS OP THE GIKL WITH DABK EYES 


87 


that skipped on board us, and that only smashed both legs of a 
negro, and then hopped off through the foresail to windward. 

‘‘Had I not had a good dinner that day and pleasant society on 
board,” — how peculiarly the speaker smiled ! — “ I should perhaps 
have taught that brig such a lesson that he would not have cared 
to report it to his admiral. But as I knew I had the heels of him, 
and as the rest of the squadron were now crowding all sail and 
keeping off in chase of me, I ordered Pedillo, just by way of touch- 
ing my hat and saying ‘ Adios^ to clear away the long gun and 
return the brig’s salute. The shot struck him just forward the 
night-heads by the bowsprit, and by the way the splinters flew and 
bis jib and head-sails came down I knew I had crippled him for an 
hour at least. At the same time, to prevent any mistakes as to our 
quality, and to satisfy the admiral’s curiosity, we hauled down the 
Yankee colors and set our swallow-tailed flag.” 

“ Rather dark bunting ! — no ? ” edged in Don Igna9io. 

“Ay, amigo! as black as that eye of thine, though not half so 
murderous,” retorted the pirate, as he continued his narrative. 

“ Bueno^ there came the whole of the squadron down after us, 
spitting out from their bridle-ports mouthfuls of cold iron, which 
all went to the bottom of the Virgin’s Passage, for ‘not one came 
within a mile of the schooner ; and then I led them such a dance 
through that intricate cluster of reefs and islets that soon after 
dark they gave up the game, and I said ^Buenos noches"* to them all.” 

Here Captain Brand paused, made a careful selection of a beau- 
tifully turned trabuco cigar from the box, shouted to Babette to 
produce some old Santa Cruz rum, sugar, lemons, and hot water, — 
screeching hot, he said, — at which the padre crossed himself ; and 
then, throwing his fine legs, incased in the lustrous silk stockings, 
on a chair beside him, and while his eyes gazed fondly on the 
brilliants sparkling in the buckles of his shoes, he resumed his tale. 

“ When I went below again, after every thing had become quiet 
on deck, I found my stag-eyed sweetheart waiting to receive me. 
How superbly she looked as she made a movement from the cushions 
where she had been reclining, and exclaimed : 

“‘Oh, senory what has happened, and what was the cause of all 
that noise of guns and those cries of agony I heard above ? ’ 

“ ‘ Querida Lucia^ dearest,’ I replied, ‘ we have been where there 
are — a — pirates, but fortunately have escaped, and the cries you 
heard were from one of my poor crew who got slightly wounded 
by a shot.’ 


88 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“‘Ah, malditos piratos ! (cursed pirates!) “exclaimed the 
charming beauty, as she put both her hands in mine, ‘ and how- 
thankful am I that you are not hurt! But, querido 
(dear one ! ) “ she went on, ‘ when shall we get to Porto Rico and 
our dear father ? We must be near, for I heard one of your sailors 
shout to you the name of the island.’ 

“ In reply I told her that we had been near Porto Rico, but that 
— a — circumstances were such, on account of the dangerous pirates 
who infested those seas, that I felt obliged for her safety, — you 
understand, — to run along by way of Hispaniola, — she not having 
a very clear idea of the position and geography of those parts, — 
and that our cruise might probably be prolonged for a few days 
more.” 

“ And into hell, perhaps,” said the doctor, with a hollow voice 
and a calm, cold eye. 

. “ Oh, no, my friends, certainly nothing so bad as that. Possibly 
to heaven ! but, quien sahe f no one can tell. 

“ However,” pursued the captain, “ I soon succeeded in allaying 
her apprehensions, and then I threw myself at her feet, and im- 
plored her to risk her father’s displeasure and to marry me at once ; 
that she knew her father was cold, stern, and obdurate, and should 
he frown upon my suit, I should die of despair.” 

“ Cierto ! ” murmured Igna9io, with the grin of a skeleton. 

“ I used these passionate appeals and many more, until at last 
the fond girl jdelded her consent to my entreaties. 

“‘ But the priest, querido mio!'* she exclaimed, as she rose and 
disengaged herself from my arms. I told her that I chanced to 
have one on board as a passenger, who would perform the 
ceremony. 

“ And so I had,” added Captain Brand, “ or at least a very near 
approach to one, for my ugly boatswain, Pedillo, had been bred 
up — as an acolyte, you comprehend — in the house of a rich old 
prelate of San Paulo Cathedral, in Trinidad, to whom Pedillo, one 
fine morning, gave about eight inches of his cuchillo.” 

“ Jesus Maria ! ” exclaimed Padre Ricardo, starting back with 
horror, and telling his beads. 

“Ay, mi padre! Pedillo assassinated the holy father, and 
plundered his cash-box besides ; and so, you see, Pedillo was just 
the man I wanted.” 

Don Igna9io nodded his wicked old head through a cloud of 
^ cigar smoke as a sign of approval. 


NUPTIALS OF THE GIRL WITH DARK EYES 


89 


“ Accordingly, sefiores, the next day I made the trusty Pedillo 
cut off all the bushy beard about his ugly face, and had the crown 
of his head shaved besides, — quite like that round, oily spot there 
on the top of good Ricardo’s poll, — and then he rigged himself out 
in a clerical gown, to which the trunks of my bride’s old mother 
contributed, and, take my word for it, he was as proper and rascally 
a looking priest as could be found on the island of Cuba. He per- 
formed the ceremony, too, by way of practice, on Lascar Joe and 
the second cook beforehand, with as much decorum and solemnity, 
and gave as pious a benediction, as his old Trinidad uncle, the pre- 
late, ever did. Well, that evening we were married.” 

“ How many times has the capitano been married ? ” grunted 
out Don Igna9io. 

“ Why, let me reflect,” as he threw his cold, icy look at the 
frame of miniatures on the opposite wall. “ You mean, compadre, 
how often the ceremony has been performed. Ah ! I think on 
eleven occasions. No, it was only ten. Mme. Mathilde had two 
husbands living when I made love to her, and declined to take 
a third. But, then, you know, I have an affectionate disposition, 
and I cannot set my heart against the fascinations of tl)e sex.” 

He gave way to these moral sentiments as if he really meant 
them to be believed and generally adopted by his audience. 

“ Well, that same evening I was married to the beautiful Senorita 
Lucia Lavarona, though I am sorry to say that Pedillo did not 
perform his part of the business as well as I had expected of him 
from his practice in the morning. He stammered a good deal, and 
when he raised the crucifix to the lips of the young girl, her inno- 
cent looks and maidenly majesty of deportment so struck my 
coadjutor with confusion that he let the crucifix fall to the deck at 
her dainty feet. This little incident caused me some displeasure ; 
but, reflecting that the poet tells us 

“ ‘ A tiger, ’tis said, will turn and flee 
From a maid in the pride of her purity,’ 

I said nothing to the abashed Pedillo as I gave him back the 
emblem ; but I favored him with a look, with my right hand in 
my pocket — this fashion.” 

Here the cold-blooded scoundrel dipped his thumb and forefinger 
into the flap of his waistcoat, while the commander of the guarda 
costa waved his brown digit before him as if he knew what was 
there all the time, 


90 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“All, that restored my new-made priest to his senses, and he then 
got through the ceremony entirely to my satisfaction. 

“ However,” said Captain Brand, turning with lazy indifference 
toward Padre Ricardo, “ ever after this I resolved not to take the 
risk of such another chance of failure, and this is the reason why I 
first sought 3"our services.” 

Gracias d Dios!'*' (Thanks be to Heaven) “my son, that you 
found me ! ” said the sacrilegious wretch, as he bowed to his 
superior and sipped a glass of rum punch. “ YamonosJ let us hear 
more.” 

“ At the conclusion of our nuptials, while I held ray sweet Lucia 
to my heart and kissed her pale brow, and while tears of crystal 
drops, half in rapture and half in sorrow, dimmed her large, spar- 
kling black eyes, she withdrew this royal sapphire from her slender 
fingeiy and, gently placing the gem on mine, — where you see it, 
amigos, — she said : 

“ ‘ My dear and only love, this is the talisman of my race. It 
has been for ages in my family, and it has been the guardian of 
our hopes and honor. Receive it, friend of my heart, and be the 
protector of the young girl who yielded up to you her very 
soul ! ’ ” 

The doctor started as if he had been stung by a scorpion ; but 
Captain Brand, heedless or inattentive to the movement, went on : 

“Yes, Caballeros, those were her very words — murmured, too, in 
her low contralto tones with a pure, lisping Castilian accent, as 
she laid her stately head on my shoulder. 

“ Ay, those were rapturous moments ; and it was in some 
degree, — yes, I may say in truth entirely, — her own fault that fhey 
did not last. 

“ Well, for some days, — eight or ten, perhaps, — with light, bafiling 
winds, we crept stealthily along the south side of St. Domingo ; 
but the weather was delightful, and the time passed on the wings 
of a zephyr. In the warm, soft evenings, with the moon or stars 
shedding their pearly gleams over the sea, she sat beside me on the 
deck of the schooner, watching with girlish interest the white 
sails above her head, or singing to me the sweet little sequidillas 
of her native land. And again, starting up from my arms, she 
would peep over the counter, trace the foam as it flashed and 
bubbled in our wake, or point to the track of a dolphin as it leaped 
above the luminous waves and went like a bullet to windward. 

“ I flatter myself, Caballeros, that there have been periods in my 


NUPTIALS OF THE GIRL WITH DARK EYES 


91 


career on the liigh seas, or on land, and may be again, for aught I 
know,” continued the elegant pirate, as he crossed his legs and 
threw back the lapels of his velvet coat, so as to expose the magnifi- 
cence of his waistcoat and the frills on his broad, muscular chest, 
‘‘ when men of high birth and breeding, and lovely women, too, of 
noble lineage, have not thought it beneath them to dine with or to 
receive the homage of — a — Captain Brand. 

‘‘ And, por Dios ! ” — the narrator did not consider it unbecoming 
his cloth and profession to swear in a foreign language, — “joor 
Dios! senores, I have known the time, too, when I have played 
whist with a French prince of the blood and two Knights of the 
Golden Fleece.” 

‘‘ And you fleeced them ? No ? ” muttered Don Igna9io, with an 
envious glimmer from his greedy eye, as if no one had a right to 
rob the community but himself. 

“ And not only that,” continued the captain rapidly, “ but the 
daughter of an English peer of the realm once proposed to run 
away with me. Ho ! ho ! yes, she actually proposed to elope with 
me; but as she was verging on fifty years, and only weighed fifty 
pounds, with never a pound in her pocket, I sighed my regrets. 
Ay, great compliment it was, but I declined the honor. You your- 
self, compadrej must remember how I was received by the people 
at the Buena Vista villa at Principe — how the obispo blessed me, the 
old general embraced me, and the beautiful marquesa with the hour- 
glass waist smiled on me.” 

^^Cierto!^^ That astute old Spaniard never forgot any thing, 
particularly a debt due to him, and he remembered, moreover, to 
have heard that when the noble Mi Lord Inglez left the villa one 
dark night a good deal of plate, jewels, doubloons, and other 
valuable property disappeared with him. Ay, the sly old fellow 
had a faint recollection as well of seeing a heavily armed schoonei* 
running the gauntlet through the forts before daylight, and that 
she left a certain bag of gold ounces for him — Don Igna5io 
Sanchez — somewhere in a secret hole beneath a well-known rock 
inside the harbor. Oh, a wonderful memory for matters of this 
nature had our rapacious one-eyed acquaintance ! • 

“ Yes,” went on his partner in many a scene of pillage and crime, 
‘‘ I have every reason to know that I won the hearts, and purses, 
too, sometimes, of some of the fine people I met in refined society. 
But yet there have been occasions when the game has gone against 
me ” 


92 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Don Igna9io’s tenacious memory came again into play, and he 
looked back to the time when he himself had cleaned his profuse 
friend out of all his gains at the card-table, even to the buttons of 
his coat ; but he gave no sign of remembrance of those days, and 
only blew a dense cloud of smoke from his thin, yellow nostrils as 
the captain spoke. 

“ Though those occasions have not been of frequent recurrence.” 

The good Padre Ricardo at this juncture hoped that, by St. 
Barnabas, luck might, in all time to come, befriend his son and 
patron; croaking, too, with a goblet of punch to his unctuous lips : 
“ Yamonos ! Tell us more of the adorable Dona Lucia ! ” 

Captain Brand rapped his snuffbox, opened the diamond-crusted 
lid, took a dainty pinch, laid his cambric handkerchief over his 
kerseymere breeches, and resumed his narrative. 

“ So passed the days, caballeros ; and when, one morning, the? 
high mountains back of Port Guantamano were reported to me, I 
felt a presentiment that my dream of bliss was drawing to a close. 
Indeed, I might probably have remained at sea a week or two 
longer, but the men were getting a little impatient, and I thought 
it better to sacrifice my own pleasure to theirs. That day we 
caught a cracking breeze out of the Windward Passage, and 
toward midnight we came up with this little sandy island, here. 

“ The preparations for going into port excited the curiosity of 
my bride ; for, poor thing ! she believed we were bound into 
Porto Rico, and I had some trouble in inducing her to go below 
before we crossed the reef. Bueno ! the coast was clear, the 
signals were all right, and an hour later the schooner had her 
anchor down and sails furled pretty much in the spot where she 
now lies moored. 

“While, however, we were sweeping up the inlet, I sent a boat 
ahead, with directions for my tidy old housekeeper, Babette, to 
have every thing prepared to receive her new mistress. Just then 
one of those terrible thunder-storms came up ; heavy masses of 
clouds obscured the sky, followed by such double-barrel shocks and 
intensely vivid lightning as is only beheld in the tropics preceding 
the equinox. The rain, too, came along in horizontal sheets, driven 
by a squall which burst in fury over the island, and it seemed to me 
that all the devils from hell were howling and shrieking in the air. 

“ Shielded from the storm by a large boat-cloak, I carried my 
beautiful bride, with her face nestling on my breast, to the cove, 
and then bore her into this fine saloon. 


THE DOOM OF DONA LUCIA 


93 


“ I shall never forget the sweet words she whispered and the lov- 
ing caresses she gave me on that little journey, even while the tem- 
pest almost dashed me to the ground and the sharp flashes of 
lightning nearly blinded me. They were the last she ever lavished 
upon me.” 

No sigh escaped the lips of this cold-blooded monster as he 
uttered these words ; no sign of feeling for the ruin of a gentle 
girl whom he had betrayed to his piratical den of infamy and 
crime — whose dream of life was destroyed like a crushed rose-leaf, 
and all her hope gone from that moment. 


CHAPTER XVII 

THE DOOM OF DOS^A LUCIA 

“ I went into the storm, 

And mocked the billows of the tossing sea ; 

I said to Fate, ‘ What wilt thou do to me ? 

I have not harmed a worm 1 ’ 

“ Thy dim eyes tell a tale— 

A piteous tale of vigils ; and the trace 
Of bitter tears is on thy beauteous face ; 

Beauteous, and yet so pale I ” 

‘‘ Thus it ever is, caballero&, and ever will be,” went on Captain 
Brand, in rather a reflective strain. “ There is a point to begin and 
stop, and an end to joy as well as grief. We should, however, take 
the world as it comes and as it goes. I do, and so do you, com- 
padre! ” — pitching a cigar spear fashion at Don Igna9io to attract 
his attention, — “ and, therefore, we should never look too far ahead, 
and live only for the present. 

“ Indulging, then, in this train of thought as I set down my 
lovely burden here, and the cloak fell from her shoulders, I was 
prepared for any thing that might happen. I wore a slightly dif- 
ferent costume at the time than that she had been accustomed to see 
me in, as I always do when I think there might be a chance of a 
surprise or trap laid for us in entering the inlet. So, instead of fine 
linen and velvet, I had on a red flannel shirt, canvas trousers, with 
a cutlass slung to my side, and a pair of pistols in my belt. I don t 
think I appear handsome in that rig, but the fellows at my back 
somehow think it is becoming to me, especially when we are engaged 
in a hand-to-hand fight. What say you, compadre f ” 


94 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


The Don said nothing, and merely waved his forefinger, as if 
dress was not a matter to which he devoted much attention. He 
thought, however, that sleeves should he cut loose for knives when 
the pockets were not too small for pistols ; but he uttered no word. 

“ Bueno ! There I stood,” — pointing to the corner of the room 
as he spoke, — ‘‘ drenched with rain, and there stood my tall and 
lovely wife. 

“ The saloon was brilliantly lighted ; a profusion of plants and 
flowers were clustered here, there, and everywhere, on cabinets and 
tables, in striking contrast to the display exhibited yonder in that 
armory, where pikes, muskets, and knives were gleaming through 
the open door. 

“ Quick as the lightning which was piercing deep into the inmost 
crevices of the rocks and lighting up the crag without, Lucia’s 
dark eyes flashed around the apartment from floor to ceiling, from 
flower to blade, resting an instant on the frame of miniatures 
there — hers was not among the collection then ; it is the one in the 
middle, doctor ” 

There were no knives on the table, or else, from the deadly look 
the doctor gave, he might have perhaps sprinkled the narrator’s 
heart’s blood on the floor. 

“Until at last her gaze of terror rested on me! No one, I 
fancy, can tell the power of Spanish girls who has never seen 
them when the whole passion of their souls, either in love or hate, 
comes pouring in a black blaze of jet from their gleaming eyes. 

“ Advancing a step toward me, with her white hands clasped 
together, she said in a hurried, beseeching voice — and, low as was 
the sound, I heard it distinctly during the crashing thunder which 
shook the rocks of the crag to their foundations : 

“ ‘ Sehor! where am I ? My father ! Who — who — in the name 
of the Blessed Virgin, art thou f ’ 

“ Again giving a look of the utmost horror around the room, she 
pressed her hands to her eyes, and said, in the same low, distinct 
tone : 

“ ‘Speak, sehor! For the love of our holy Saviour, speak !’ 

“ I felt that the girl had saved me, by her own instinctive per- 
ception, a world of painful explanations, and I replied : 

“ ‘ Lucia, I divine that all farther concealments are useless — you 
are in the haunt of the most noted pirate of these seas, and that 
man stands before you.’ 

“ Caballeros ! ” continued Captain Brand, “ had my pretty prize 


THE DOOM OF DONA LUCIA 


95 


swooned away, or fallen down in a fit, or gone into hysterics and 
torn her hair out by the roots, I should not have been greatly sur- 
prised ; but she did none of those things. On the contrary, she 
became as calm as marble, — frightfully so, in fact, — and, pushing 
back the bands of her magnificent tresses from her pale forehead, 
she raised her round, white arm aloft, with her slender forefinger 
quivering like the tongue of a viper in mid-air, and then poured 
forth such a torrent of awfully impressive words that I quailed 
before her. 

“ Yes, I am no coward, take me when you will ; but on 

this occasion I must honestly admit that I stood powerless before 
the gaze and gesture of that slight, delicately formed woman. 

“ ‘ Pirate — wretch — monster ! may the curses of hell be heaped 
upon thee ! Murderer — betrayer ! may thy heart be burned, and 
thy soul blasted forever ! ’ 

“ I need not pain you, senores, by reciting the cruel words that 
came hissing through her closed teeth, nor yet farther describe the 
terrible concentrated gaze of hate and fury which streamed from 
those gleaming eyes. Suffice it to say that, though often after- 
ward I was treated in the same manner, yet on the occasion alluded 
to I cut short the interview by summoning Babette to see her mis- 
tress to her chamber, and then, glad to escape, I went out of the 
house and attended to the duties which required my presence.” 

The padre, with his flat lips half open, eagerly drinking in — Avith 
his Santa Cruz punch — the words of his patron ; the doctor, calm, 
unmoved now, and thoughtful; the one-eyed old rascal, still puff- 
ing his cigarettes and allowing no rest to his uneasy, suspicious 
optic — all sat listening, with each an interest peculiarly his own, to 
the fate of Dona Lucia. The narrator leisurely arose and held his 
hourly confab with the man at the signal-station, and then, return- 
ing to his place, proceeded with his discourse : 

“ I shall pass rapidly over, my friends, many little incidents of a 
rather unpleasant nature which occurred here, in this my rocky 
retreat, for some months after the interview which I have described. 
I tried every argument and persuasion I was master of to bring my 
proud bride to reason, but to all my entreaties she turned a cold 
and chilling stare of obdurate hate. Day by day the intensity of 
her detestation grew stronger and stronger, and seemed to have 
become a part of her nature. Yes, the gentle, yielding girl I had 
won on board the Centipede had now become as stern and unbend- 
ing as a rock, and my controlling power over her mind and love 


96 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


was gone. I left her entirely to herself for some weeks, until one 
day I thought her passion might have subsided ; and once more, 
attired in a rich and splendid suit, I came in here, as she sat like a 
marble statue at table. She never looked up at my entrance, but 
her eyes shone like stars as she mechanically went through the 
forms of the dinner laid before her. 

‘‘ ‘ Lucia ! ’ I said gayly. No answer by word or look. ‘ Lucia ! 
querida mia!'^ I repeated, and, sinking on one knee beside her, 
attempted to take her hand. 

‘‘ By all the saints, senores^ that came near — very near — being the 
last time that I ever should kneel to a woman; for, with a move- 
ment so sudden that I had barely time to leap aside, she snatched 
a long, pointed carving-knife from the table and lunged full at my 
throat ! The blade just grazed my jugular artery, inflicting a slight 
wound. But she never turned round to see the extent of her 
effort, and again sat calm and rigid at the table. 

“ This was my last visit save one. I had long before abandoned 
these comfortable quarters entirely, and occupied the rooms you do, 
mi padre, out there among the men. In fact, my stern young 
bride was in entire command of the island ; and even my good 
Babette, here, stood in such awe of her that she always crossed her- 
self when called to approach her mistress. 

“ Month by month matters went on in this way, until the rainy 
season had gone, and I was preparing for another cruise in the 
schooner ; but hour by hour the consuming passion which flamed 
in the veins of Lucia was doing its work. I sometimes beheld her 
standing out on the veranda, tall and stately as ever ; and when 
the moon was at the full it threw its light upon her wan and 
sunken cheeks, and thin, wasted frame. Ay, there she stood, like 
an almost transparent statue of alabaster, with her dark eyes, 
shining with an unearthly light, turned in one long, tearless gaze 
upon the ledge and combing breakers to seaward. It was singular, 
too, the effect she produced even upon the horde of these brave fel- 
lows of mine, for no persuasion could induce a man of them to 
come within pistol-shot of that part of the house while she was thus 
keeping her nightly vigils. And as for Pedillo, he acquired such 
a superstitious dread of the girl he had married, and lived in such 
a state of abject terror, that I had serious thoughts of shooting him 
through the head to avoid the contaminating influence he exercised 
over his comrades. 

“ Well, Caballeros, late one Saturday night, while the men were 


THE DOOM OF DONA LUCIA 


97 


carousing and drinking success to the coming cruise, — we were to 
sail on the following IVIonday, — and while I was returning from my 
usual stroll to the Tiger’s Trap to see the battery in order and the 
lookouts wide awake, I met Babette toddling along, nearly out of 
breath. 

“ ‘ What is it, old lady ? ’ You know, amigos, that Babette 
never spoke a word in her life, but she made signs to let me know 
that I was wanted at the crag, and that there was no time to be 
lost. I quickened my pace, and, preceded by Babette, I once more 
darkened my own thresliold. The curtains and hangings were all 
closely drawn in the saloon, here, and it was dark as a tomb ; 
but there was a light burning yonder in the passage leading to the 
chamber, and I made my way to the door. 

“ I shall never forget what I saw, though I should like to, as it 
comes to me sometimes in the night, or when I am left much alone 
by myself.” 

The pirate passed his hands over his eyes as if he saw something ' 
while he spoke, and then, letting his voice drop to an almost 
sepulchral pitch, he went on hurriedly: 

“ I stood at the door, cahalleros, and looked in. On the bed, 
which was drawn to the middle of the chamber to get air through 
the narrow, loop-holed windows, with the gauze curtains falling 
square on all sides, lay Lucia. Her attenuated frame scarcely pre- 
sented an uneven surface beneath the snowy sheet which covered 
it. Her superb hair was spread in great black masses on the pil- 
low, and her pale, marble face reposed there like an ivory picture 
in an ebony setting. Her eyes were wide open, large and lumi- 
nous, and her thin, delicate hands were clasped around a silver and 
pearl crucifix, which rested on her hollow breast. A single taper 
in a silver lamp threw a lurid, flickering ray about the room, and 
beside it was Babette, on her knees, quivering with terror, while 
from one of the loop-holed windows a broad white band of moon- 
light streamed directly across the pillow and face of the dying girl.” 

Captain Brand’s face assumed a deathly pallor, and, with his icy 
blue eyes fixed on vacancy, and his voice sunk to a hoarse whisper, 
he went on : 

“ As I appeared in the portals of the door Lucia slowly raised 
her forefinger and beckoned me to approach. I could no more have 
resisted the summons than if a chain cable to a frigate’s anchor had 
caught me in its iron coils and was dragging me to the bottom of 
the sea. I moved to the foot of the bed. 


7 


98 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


« < Pirato ! ’ came from her slightly parted lips, in her old low 
and distinct tones — * pirato^ behold your cruel work ! Destroyer 
of mother and child — of soul and body — may the curses of a dying 
woman and her unborn child haunt you by day and by night ! ’ 
I was dumb, and my pulse stopped beating. 

Maria purissima!^ were the last words that came, in a 
sweet, pure whisper, from her parted lips ; she clasped the crucifix 
tighter, and the spirit departed. I tore aside the gauze net to lay 
my hand on her heart, when, on my soul ! her right hand slowly 
relaxed its death-grasp on the crucifix, and, rising to a vertical 
line, with the forefinger pointing upward, quivering in the light of 
the waning moon, like, as it was, a supernatural warning ! Yes, 
that finger ” 

“Mamma ! mamma ! ” came in a weak, plaintive voice from the 
piazza, while the villain, with his hands before him, as if to shut 
out a frightful vision, and eyeballs starting from their sockets, was 
hoarsely whispering to his horror-stricken audience the last warn- 
ing of the dead Lucia. 

As the low, moaning cry in the stillness which reigned around the 
saloon struck his ear he sprung with a bound to his feet, and, quick 
as thought, with a pistol in each hand, shouted : “ Who’s there ? ” 

“ It is the little sick boy, senor. Do him no harm, at your peril ! ” 
and the doctor stood towering before the pirate’s levelled weapons. 

Maldito on the brat ! Pshaw ! ” said Captain Brand, quieting 
down, and returning the pistols to his pockets. “ How nervous 
I am ! Excuse me, cahalleros, I was thinking of something else.” 


CHAPTER XVIII 

END OF THE BANQUET 


“ There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks, 

As he stalked away with his iron box. 

Oh ho ! oh ho ! The cock doth crow ; 

It is time for the fisher to rise and go. 

Fair luck to the abbot, fair luck to the shrine ! 

He hath gnawed in twain my choicest line ; 

Let him swim to the north, let him swim to the south, 

The^imfe will carry my hook in his mouth.” 

In the pause which followed the dreadful episode just recounted 
by Captain Brand the padre was occupied in pattering a prayer, 
counting his beads, and elevating his crucifix as if he was mum- 


END OF THE BANQUET 


99 


bling high-mass at the altar. Don Igna9io slowly waved his brown 
forefinger, and his single spark of glowing eye glared fiercely and 
fixedly on his host. A clammy sweat burst out on the pallid brow 
of the doctor, and his hands were clutched before him on the table 
like the jaws of a steel vice. And still the drunken shrieks and 
cheers of the piratical crew at the sheds arose wild and shrill in 
the calm night, making a gloomy echo for the banquet. The 
doctor was the first to break the awkward silence which pervaded 
the saloon. 

“ Capitano ! ” said he, in his habitual calm, deep voice, ‘‘ with ' 
respect to what you said in the early part of the evening, of break- 
ing up this establishment, what, may I ask, are your plans for the 
future ? ” 

‘‘ Gracias ! amigo doctor ! Thank you, my friend, for chang- 
ing the conversation. My plans — eh ? ah ! Well, they are 
these.” 

Here Captain Brand’s face assumed its usual expression ; and, ^ 
entirely himself again, he went on to state, in a precise, business- 
like way, the views he had resolved upon for future action. 

“ To-morrow, gentlemen, is Sunday. Those boisterous fellows 
out there, after mass, will need rest all the day. On Monday, how- 
ever, I shall begin to change the rig of the schooner, fill up with 
provisions for a long cruise, — take on board all the loose odds and 
ends we have stowed here, — of course,” he added, as he remarked 
an enquiring and a rather alarmed mercenary look from the Tuerto’s 
glim — “ of course after having squared up all claims of our com- 
padre, there.” 

Hum ! ” croaked that sharp rascal, with a nod of satisfaction, 
quite like an old raven. 

“ Then, senores, I shall burn or destroy the old sheds, and bury 
the cannon and heavy articles we cannot find room for in the 
Centipede; when, if nothing happens, we shall trip anchor and 
spread our sails for sea ! 

“ Babette ! Babette ! Really I believe that dear old negress has 
fallen asleep. Babette ! Ah ! there you are, my beauty ! See if 
you can’t give us a bowl of okra gumbo before we break up here.” 

Babette had not been asleep. Oh, no. She had her ear to the 
door of the saloon, and was listening to the sad history of Dona 
Lucia ; and when her master came to the final scene, the old 
woman fell on hei’ knees and shivered all over, where she remained 
until the sound of the captain’s voice again called her to her duties. 


100 CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 

“ And when we have left these quiet waters, my son,” broke in 
the padre, what then ? ” 

The fact was that the carnivorous and vinous Father Ricardo 
knew that his stomach was not suited for high winds and rough 
oceans, and was hoping that some scheme might be devised to 
allow him to remain tranquilly on the island. 

‘‘ Why, holy padre, I propose to steer clear of the West Indies 
by some unfrequented track, and, striking the broad Atlantic, 
stretch down the coast of Brazil. Perhaps we may double Cape 
Horn, and see what those miserable patriots are fighting for in 
Chili and Peru ; then maybe across the Pacific, to the lovely 
islands and maidens of Polynesia ; so on to the China Seas, where 
we ma}^ fall in with an outward bound Canton trader, or a galleon 
with a ton or two of silver on board — who knows ? There is 
plenty of blue water and fine ships everywhere ; so we must be 
content.” 

Padre Ricardo made the sign of the cross, kissed his thumb and 
forefinger, and, reaching his dirty paw over to the captain, shook 
hands with him. 

“Ay, amigos!"*^ continued the leader, without minding the 
friendly interruption. “Yes, my friends, we shall, I trust, give 
the hounds in search of us the slip ; and even should they scent 
out this retired little spot, they will have their trouble for their 
chase, and find nothing but a few stones and heaps of rubbish 
above ground.” 

“ They may find some little matters below, though,” chimed in 
the commander of the felucca. 

“ If they do,” retorted the pirate, with a meaning scowl, “ I’ll 
put the spy who betrays it to such a torture as that he’ll wish him- 
self below ground when I come back here.” 

“ Cierto^ amigo! no fear of that !” muttered the Tuerto, with 
some little trepidation of manner. “ My papers are white.” 

“ Captain Brand,” said the doctor, “ my contract with you is 
nearly up, and since I only agreed — as you know — to enlist my 
professional services here on shore, I presume you will have no 
objections to permit me to depart with Don Igna9io in the felucca.” 

It would be difficult to say what caused the flush of passion 
which overspread the leader’s face as he listened to this simple 
request, but it was full a minute before he replied, and then, hav- 
ing weighed the matter carefully in his mind, he said, in a precise 
and determined tone, in French : 


END OF THE BANQUET 


101 


^ M.le Docteur, the compacts that I have made with all those 
that have taken service with me have never been broken except by- 
death. I cannot, therefore, consider yonr request, and I shall 
expect you to sail with me in the schooner.” 

Then he added quickly, as he noticed a certain haughty expres- 
sion in his subordinate’s face: “Pardon tl\q^ monsieur ; we had 
better not discuss this question now. Suppose you see me on the 
morrow ? ” 

“ Willingly, senor, and you will find my resolution unchange- 
able.” Rising as he spoke, he bowed to his companions at table, 
and saying ^^Buenas noches ” (Good-night), he passed from the 
saloon to the piazza. There he paused a moment, as if communing 
with himself, and then, approaching the grass hammock where the 
sick boy was sleeping, he gently took the little fellow up in his 
arms. The child murmured “ Mamma, mamma ! ” and was borne 
away. 

Captain Brand followed the doctor with his searching, shark-like 
eyes until he had left the apartment, and there was something that 
denoted danger in the look ; but he uttered no sound, and, placing 
a finger on his lip, he nodded meaningly to the padre. 

A moment after Babette brought in the steaming gumbo soup, 
and the pirates’ feast was nearly ended. Don Igna9io waited until 
his companions had swallowed a goodly portion of the grateful 
mess, when he, too, refreshed himself. Then, making his salutation 
in his usual observant manner, he departed. He declined, how- 
ever, the offer of his host’s society to his boat, saying he had, he 
knew, half a dozen of the felucca’s crew outside the building to 
guard his footsteps, and he would not put the capitano to the 
trouble. 

When the padre rose to give his benediction to his patron, the 
captain took him impressively by the rope which girded his cas- 
sock about the loins, and, giving it a sharp jerk or two, he said : 

“ My holy father, I think w'e shall have a sad duty to perform 
to-morrow. Our old friend Gibbs has behaved badly, and I shall 
punish him. He is now in the Capella dungeon. After early mass 
go and console him.” 

The padre returned a meaning smile, crossed himself, and slowly 
left the pirate alone in his saloon. 


102 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


CHAPTER XIX 

FANDANGO ON ONE LEG 

“ God I ’tis a fearsome thing to see 
That pale, wan man’s mute agony— 

Those pinioned arms, those hands that ne’er 
Shall be lifted again— not even in prayer 1 
That heaving chest I Enough ; ’tis done ! 

The bolt has fallen ! the spirit is gone.” 

Day dawned in the east. The early spikes of morning shot up 
in rosy bands from behind the lofty hills of Cuba and announced 
the coming of the sun. The inlet and basin, framed in by their 
rocky walls, were still clothed in the gloom of night, and dimly 
reflecting the fading stars on the calm, unruffled surface where the 
schooner and felucca were moored. Away off in the distance a 
dense white misty vapor hung flat and low over the lagoon and 
thickets of mangroves, with not a breath of air to disturb the 
noxious fog or quiver a leaf in the silent groves. The revels, too, 
of the drunken sailors had long since ceased ; the sentinels, with 
their cutlasses in the sheaths, paced slowly to and fro before the 
doors of the sheds, and the lookouts at the signal-stations and 
battery peered through the early dawn to seaward ; else not a 
sound or moving thing, save a teal or two fluttering, with a sharp 
cry, up and down the lagoon, the music of the tiny ripples lapping 
on the shelly beach, and the low roar, in a deep bass, breaking and 
moaning over the ledge beyond the island. Such was the appear- 
ance of things where our scene is laid, in the Twelve League Group 
of Keys, on a Sunday morning in the year of our Lord eighteen 
hundred and five. 

Half a mile, perhaps, inland from the sheds where the sailors 
lived, and beneath the steep face of the ridge-like crag which split 
the island in two parts, stood a low chapel, built of loose stones 
nicely fitted together and roofed with tiles. A rough iron cross 
was fastened over the doorless entrance, and at the other end was 
a stone balustrade, with a rude painting of the Virgin over the 
altar, on which stood four or five tall brass candlesticks and a 
lighted taper. Outside the building was a narrow and secluded 


FANDANGO ON ONE LEG 


103 


enclosure, surrounded by a low wall of coral rocks, with a few 
headstones, marked with black crosses — the graves of the pirates 
whose bones reposed beneath. At one end of this burial-place was 
still another subdivision, where stood ten upright flat white stones, 
on whose faces were rudely carved initial letters, with the years in 
which the eternal sleepers had been laid beneath the sand. Far 
and near sprung up close and almost impenetrable thickets of 
cactus, whose sharp and pointed needle-shoots defied the passage 
of any thing more bulky than land-crabs and lizards. One or two 
narrow pathways had been cut out here and there, but they were 
overgrown again by the stubborn, hardy vegetation ; and only with 
the risk of losing one’s trousers, and having one’s legs cut in gashes, 
could a human being struggle through it. 

Within the chapel kneeled a dozen or more of the Centipedes 
crew, the coarse and sodden faces and uncombed locks, from their 
night’s debauch, in striking contrast to the place and the apparent 
devoutness of manner in which they crossed themselves while the 
rites of the Church were going on. Before the altar stood Padre 
Ricardo, with his breviary on the chancel beneath the taper, and 
chanting forth from his deep lungs the service of the mass. In a 
few minutes the unholy hands and lips which performed the sol- 
emn ceremony ceased word and gesture, and with a sonorous bene- 
diction at the elevation of the Host, and a tinkle of a bell, the 
sailors arose from their knees and again staggered back to the 
sheds, to slumber through the day. When all had gone, the padre 
clasped his missal, tucked it into his bosom, and, making the sign 
of the cross, with a genuflexion, before the Virgin, the sacrilegious 
wretch turned and left the chapel. 

Pursuing the winding path which led to his own habitation for 
a certain distance, he then turned to the left, and, carefully picking 
his way through the sharp cactus and Spanish bayonets along the 
face of the crag, he stopped at a yawning fissure which gaped open 
in the rock. Here, too, the same wiry vegetation had crept, and 
it was with great difficulty and many an ^^Avef*^ and Santa 
Maria ! ” that the padre succeeded in passing into the dark, rugged 
mouth of the cavern. 

‘‘By the ashes of San Lorenzo,” he muttered, “there are ser- 
pents and venomous insects in this pit of purgatory! Oh, miseri- 
cordia! what has pierced my leg ? Why should my son drag me 
through this hole ? Ah, blessed St. Barnabas ! a slimy reptile 
has crossed my instep ! ” 


104 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 


Feeling with outspread hands in his fright, as he gradually made 
his way into the dripping cavern, getting narrower and lower as 
he proceeded, he at last, after stumbling prayerfully along for 
about a hundred and fifty yards, came to a loose pile of stones. 
Here opened another low, narrow fissure on the left, and, in some 
doubt, he was about to enter ; but the noise he made by stepping 
on a stone was answered by the hissing warning of a serpent, and 
tlje scared padre fell back at his full length in a pool of stagnant, 
slimy water. 

“ 0 Madre di Dios ! I am stung by a cobra ! Holy Virgin ! 
my new cossock ruined, too ! Ave Maria ! light me out of this 
abode of the devil ! ” 

Slowly recovering, however, from his fright, he once more 
regained his feet, and, after a few steps, which he was obliged to 
accomplish by scraping his crown against the jagged rocks above, 
his outstretched hands touched an iron-bound door. 

“ Gracias d Dios ! Thanks be to all the saints, I am here at 
last. But, alas ! curses on me, I shall be obliged to return by the 
same path, unless my son allows me to escape by the casa.” 

Cautiously searching with his fingers as he muttered these words, 
he touched a bolt, and, grasping it with both hands, drew it partly 
out, like the knob of a bell. Then placing his ear to the door, he 
presently heard a rattling, creaking noise, as if a beam of timber, 
with pulley and chain, was being raised from behind the entrance. 
When the sound ceased, the door yielded to the padre’s sturdy 
shoulder, and there was just room to admit his portly body. Here 
the passage was wider, — the rock evidently chiselled away by the 
hands of man, — and on one side was an artificial chamber, blasted 
out of the solid rock, with a narrow door with heavy iron bolts on 
the outside. At this opening the padre paused and listened. No 
sound caught his ear at first, but as he clutched the bolt and it 
grated back in its bands he was saluted by such a volley of fright- 
ful curses as to make him start back and cross his ample breast. 
It was the voice of Master Gibbs lying there on a low iron settle 
in the noissome dungeon, with not a ray of light to cheer him, 
and only a jug of water and some weevily biscuit to save him from 
starvation. All through the day and during the long, long hours 
of the awful night, in pain and suffering from his lopped-off limb 
and bruises, had he lain on his hard bed, with clinched hands, 
blaspheming and impotently raging in his agony and despair. No 
prayer, however, dawned in his ruthless heart or was breathed from 


FANDANGO ON ONE LEG 


105 


his brutal lips ; but curses upon curses came thick and fast, till his 
tongue refused to give them utterance, and he fell back in utter 
exhaustion. As the noise, however, of the bolt struck his ear he 
clutched the stone water-jug from the floor, and hurled it, with a 
yell of execrations, toward the door, where the fragments fell with 
a clattering crash on the stone pavement. • 

Grinding his teeth in his frightful passion, he howled : 

“ Let me but once put these hands on your blood-stained carcass, 
and if the mother that bore ye will know her spawn again, my 
name’s not Bill Gibbs ! Ha ! you miserable swab, with your soft 
words and white hands ! when I get out of this hole. I’ll blow you 

and your infernal hounds to ! Give me fair play, and, even 

on one of my legs. I’ll cut the cowardly heart out of you. Captain 
Brand ! Come in, will ye, ye son of the devil ? and I’ll bite the 
tongue out of your mouth by the roots ! ” 

Here the hoarse and panting wretch again ceased his roarings, 
and the padre timidly opened the door. 

“ Ha ! who’s that ? Babette ? ” 

“ No, my son, it is your good Padre Ricardo come to console 
you.” 

What the maimed villain replied to the priest, and what means 
the holy father took to allay the passion and assuage the sorrows 
of the man lying helpless in the dungeon, or whether successful in 
liis mission, is not important to state in detail. An hour later, 
however, the priest seemed relieved in body and spirit as he retired 
from the loathsome hole, and, shooting the bolt as he closed the 
door, cautiously felt his way along the dark and narrow passage. 
Presently, as he turned an angle, a ray of light from the loop-holes 
of the great stone vault beneath the pirate’s dwelling lighted his 
pathway ; and a moment after, with a hearty sigh of satisfaction, 
he seized a cord above his head and gave it a jerk. A bell sounded 
above, and then a large, square-hinged trap-hatch fell down, 
swinging gently to and fro from the beams above. At the same 
time the padre put his arms about a square wooden stanchion 
which supported the floor of the saloon, and then, painfully sticking 
his toes in some deep-cut notches at the sides, he slowly began to 
mount upward. When, however, his oily shaved crown appeared 
nearly at the level of the floor, a vigorous grasp was laid on his 
shoulders, and he was pulled up like a flapping lobster and rolled 
into the apartment. It was Captain Brand who kindly assisted 
the holy father, and it was the captain’s hollow laugh which saluted 


106 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


him in his torn and soiled raiment as, with difficulty, he regained 
his perpendicular. 

“ Laugh not, hijo mio, at my sorrowful plight,” said the bruised 
Ricardo, with some asperity. I have met with dangers of ven- 
omous serpents and been stabbed cruelly by those villanous 
cactus plants.” 

“ But I raised the beam, my padre, the moment you made the 
signal.” 

‘‘You did, my son; but what I suffered in the cavern was as 
nothing to what I endured when I entered the dungeon of the Eng- 
lish Gibbs. Jesus Maria, what an infidel he is ! ” 

“ You did not find his spirit subdued, then, by bread and 
water ? ” 

“ Far from it, my friend. He rages like a wild beast. He con- 
signs your body and soul to everlasting torments. But, what is 
more impious still,” went on the padre, as he crossed himself, “ he 
swore at your holy father, and hoped I would roast in hell.” 

“But he confessed, Ricardo, and you gave him absolution ?” 

“If calling me thief and assassin, and hurling his stone water-jug 
at my head, be confession and forgiveness of sins, the ceremony has 
been performed. Ah, my son, he needs no more mercy in this 
world.” 

“ Of course not, my padre ; and we will give him a short shrift 
and a long rope. 

“ Babette ! ” continued Captain Brand. “ Ah ! my Baba, you 
have not forgotten to feed our jolly Gibbs there below ? No ? I 
thought not. Well, then, it is Sunday, you know ; give him a pint 
of pure rum for his morning’s draught. And, Baba, my beauty, 
slip a pair of iron ruffies over his wrists, and then pass a cloth over 
those bloodshot eyes of his, and lug him here beneath this hatch. 
Go down by your own ladder, and be quick, my Baba, as I wish my 
breakfast presently.” 

All this was said in a cool and rather an affectionate tone, as Cap- 
tain Brand sipped a spoonful or two of chocolate from a cup of 
Dresden china. Then, turning to the padre, he said : 

“ You would, perhaps, like a cordial, my father, to take the chill 
off your stomach ? Yes. You will find some capital Cura9oa in 
that stand of bottles there.” 

The padre, forgetful of the dignity of his calling, shuffied with 
indecent haste to the spot indicated, and, without going through 
the form of filling one of the diminutive thimble-shaped glasses in 


FANDANGO ON ONE LEG 


107 


the stand, he boldly raised the silver-netted flask to his lips, and 
sucked away until it was nearly empty. Then, seating himself on 
the settee, he lugged out his illufninated missal and pored over its 
contents. Captain Brand occupied himself with opening the loop 
of the silk rope which fell from the ceiling, and securing the end 
firmly on the stout cleat in the wall. 

So passed the time until a noise beneath the room of a voice in 
anger, and a body bumped and dragged along, once more attracted 
the attention of those in the saloon. 

“ Oh ho ! is that you. Master Gibbs?” exclaimed Captain Brand 
in a cheerful voice. “You have risen early — but stop that profane 
language, my friend, or you will never see daylight again ! ” 

The maimed ruflian only muttered : “ Your friend, eh ? blind- 
folded and manacled ! ” And then, apparently abashed by the 
cool, commanding tone of his superior, he held his peace. 

“ Well, you are quiet, my lad. Now, we’ll see if we can’t hoist 
you up here in the saloon.” 

“ Thank ye, sir,” said Gibbs aloud ; and then he muttered to 
himself : “ Let me jest get one grip of ye, and I’ll show ye how 
quiet I’ll be ! ” 

“ Do you think we shall need assistance, my son ? ” whispered 
the padre into the ear of his patron. 

“ Diavolo ! No. I never wanted help in these little affairs, 
except in the case of that violent Yankee whaler, who gave us 
much trouble, you know, and we were obliged to call Pedillo,” 
replied the captain, in the same low tone. Then, raising his voice, 
he said: 

“ Hark ye. Master Gibbs. Babette will lift you off the stones, 
and the padre and I will raise you up to the room here. You don’t 
weigh so much as you did before you had your leg hacked off with 
a hand-saw — ho ! and I dare say you are as light now as a dried 
stockfish ! Up with him. Baba ! There — steady ! all right ! — 
here you are ! ” 

Saying this. Captain Brand, with the assistance of the stout 
negress and the padre, raised the once burly ruffian, with a vigorous 
hoist that made him groan, to the floor of the saloon, where they 
laid him out at full length on his back. 

“ Wait a moment, my hearty, till the hatch is raised, and then we 
will raise you. Unpleasant position, no doubt,” continued Captain 
Brand, as the trap came up and was secured by a spring ; “ but, 
then, you know, you would have that pin of yours cut off, and 


108 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Bomehow you have been so careless as to dispose of the nice leg 
you had the other day, made out of the spruce fore-top-mast of the 
Centipede — a very tough bit of a spar it was.” 

Here Master Gibbs grated his teeth and grinned hideously. 

The captain smiled like a demon, and, approaching the prostrate 
cripple, said cheerfully — ay, in a frank and hearty tone : 

Now, my padre, place a comfortable chair for Master Gibbs, 
and we will help him to a seat.” 

The considerate Ricardo placed a large, roomy Manila chair on 
the fatal trap, and then aided his chief in lifting their victim to the 
position assigned him. As they performed this operation the cap- 
tain, with the gentleness of a tiger before he strikes his prey, and 
with a wink to the padre, lightly passed the noose of the silk rope 
over the ruffian’s hairy throat, where it lay like a snake with its 
slack coil squirming at the back of the chair. 

“ Now, Master Gibbs, I am about to remove this bandage from 
your beautiful red eyes,” said Captain Brand, in his cold, chilling, 
deliberate manner, “ and if you so much as move when daylight 
shines before you. I’ll blow your brains out ! ” 

Here the pirate leisurely cocked a pistol close to his subordinate’s 
ear, removed the bandage, and laid the weapon on the table within 
reach. 

‘‘ No noise, either. Master Gibbs ! ” continued Captain Brand, as 
he stirred up the remains of his chocolate and gulped it down ; “ for 
it is Sunday morning, and we must respect the feelings of our 
padre. You were unkind to him, he tells me, just now, and even 
said some disrespectful things of me. What have I done to 
vex you ? ” 

The manacled wretch tried to raise his horny hands to his face 
when the cloth was removed from his eyes and rub those organs, 
while he glared suspiciously around ; but the captain pointed with 
his white finger in a threatening way to the cocked pistol, and 
Master Gibbs let his hands fall again. 

“Well, Captain Brand, I s’pose now you’re going to treat me as 
a faithful man who has sarved under you ought to be treated ; and 
I’m willin’ to forgive what has passed.” 

There was no look of forgiveness, however, in those brutal, 
bloodshot eyes, nor much sign of repentance in those grinding teeth 
and compressed lips. 

“ Why, no, my Gibbs, I am not going to treat you as a faithful 
man, but I tell you what I will do,” — here the captain moved his 


FANDANGO ON ONE LEG 


109 


chair nearer till his straw slipper touched the spring of the trap, — 
“ I will drink a glass of grog with you in forgetfulness of the past 
and forgiveness for the future.” 

Thank ye, Captain Brand ; I do feel dry. That stuff Babette 
gave me a while ago didn’t touch the right spot, and I’ll be glad to 
jine you.” 

“Ah ! hueyio, my old friend ; you shall drink something that 
loill touch the right spot ! What shall it be ? you have only to 
name it.” 

“ I’ll take a toss of that old brandy you gave me the other day, 
if it’s the same to you, sir.” 

“ Oh, Master Gibbs, it’s all the same to me. Delighted I am to 
oblige you ! Padre mio / a glass of old cognac for our friend — a 
tumblerful ; a wine-glass will do for me.” 

The padre poured out the brandy as he was desired, handed the 
lesser glass to the captain, and the tumbler he placed in the locked 
hands of the victim. Slowly and painfully the subdued ruffian 
raised the glass to his mouth, careful not to spill a drop ; then, 
before draining it, he cleared his throat, while at the same time 
the captain rose to his feet, his right foot resting a little on the 
heel, and held the wine-glass before him. 

“Now, then. Master Gibbs, for a toss that will touch the right 
spot.” 

“ Ay, ay, captain,” said Gibbs, “ and here’s forgiveness for the 
future.” 

Scarcely had the words been uttered and the liquor began to 
gurgle down the hairy throat of the manacled wretch, than the 
pirate before him pressed his foot with a quick, nervous action on 
the spring. 

Like a flash the trap fell, carrying chair and man with it. The 
hinges of the hatch creaked, the wicker-work chair fell with a 
bound on the stone floor below, the heavy beam overhead gave a 
jarring quiver as the strong silk rope brought up with a shuddering 
surge on the cleat where it was belayed in the wall, and with a 
gasping, choking cry of pain, mingled with the ring of the shat- 
tered tumbler on the pavement, the ruffian of a hundred crimes fell 
full three feet, and hung struggling in the death agony. With 
almost superhuman force he raised his clinched hands and struck 
his forehead till the manacles were twisted like wire by the effort, 
spinning around, too, by the lopsided weight of his body, while the 
beam above yielded slightly to the strain, and the deadly cord, no 


110 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


longer squirming, but taut as a bar of iron, held the wretch in its 
knotted embrace, clasped tight around the throat. In a minute or 
two the hands ceased beating the inflamed face and head, and fell 
with a clank before the body, the leg gave a few convulsive twitches, 
a last and violent spasm shook the frame, and there Master Gibbs 
hung, a lump of inanimate clay. 

While this murderous business was going on, and the poor crip- 
pled wretch was struggling in the jaws of death, the padre was 
chanting with his profane tongue from his open breviary the 
Salve, Domine, and his patron coolly took down a telescope and 
swept it over the blue water to seaward. When, however, after a 
quarter of an hour had elapsed, the body of their victim gave no 
more signs of life, the captain laid down the telescope as the padre 
closed his missal, and remarked quietly, while glancing critically 
down at the suspended body : 

He did not go off so easy as I had anticipated ; his bull-neck 
is not broken, though the knot was perfectly well placed. How- 
ever, he is stone-dead, and we will lower him down. You, my 
padre, will bury him.” 

mioJ ” (son of mine !) “ spare me that troublesome duty. 
Would you have me drag such a carcass through the cavern and 
consign him to consecrated earth, when he refused the last holy 
offers of salvation?” 

Bueno, my padre, I respect your feelings. You need not put 
him under the sand ; take him merely to his late dungeon, and lay 
him decently on his bed.” 

‘‘ Thank you, my son ; your orders shall be obeyed.” 

Glad, apparently, to be relieved from farther exertion, though 
with manifest symptoms of disgust, the priest, more infamous even 
than the scoundrel he had assisted in hanging, clumsily descended 
the hatchway by the way he came up, and awaited the movements 
of his chief. The captain stepped to the wall, and, casting off the 
turns from the cleat, he slowly lowered the body down until it 
rested on the pavement. 

“ Unbend the rope from his neck, my padre, and hitch it on to 
that Manila chair. There — all right ! You may return this way 
and breakfast with me.” 

Saying this. Captain Brand rounded up the chair, detached the 
silk rope, hung the loop in its accustomed place, and then waited 
the reappearance of his confederate. Hot many minutes elapsed 
before the padre, having performed the last rites, again ascended 


BUSINESS 


111 


the stanchion, and was assisted above the floor by his chief. Then 
both together got hold of a ring-bolt in the trap, drew it up and 
secured the spring, placing square bits of mahogany over the 
countersunk apertures, so as to prevent accidental falls or hangings 
of themselves. Even while performing these mechanical operations 
the priest puffed out an account of his proceedings below : how he 
had dragged the body to the dungeon ; how, when there, he had 
inadvertently stumbled and fallen on the top of it, and that his 
lips — maldito ! — came in contact with the open mouth of the late 
Master Gibbs ; but when he had recovered from the horror of this 
frightful caress, he had said a short prayer and bolted the door. 

“ You have done well, my padre ; and now let us break our fast. 
Babette, a couple of broiled snappers and a cold duck. Be lively, 
old lady, for I have business to attend to after breakfast. Ilola, mi 
padre, will you wash your hands in water before sitting down ? 
No ? Bxceno! I will myself take a dip all over.” 

No, the oih^ Ricardo never washed his hands, save wetting the 
tips of his fingers in holy-water in the chapel ; and, indeed, he 
rarely touched water in any quantity, either outside or in, and it 
was with a look of surprise, not unmingled with contempt, that he 
beheld his patron retire for a bath. 


CHAPTER XX 
BUSINESS 


“ He had rolled in money like pigs in mud, 

Till it seemed to have entered into his blood 
By some occult projection ; 

And his cheeks, instead of a healthy hue, 

As yellow as any guinea grew, 

Making the common phrase seem true 
About a rich complexion.” 

The business which Captain Brand alluded to when he was about 
to partake of breakfast with his friend the padre was, in the first 
instance, to arrange some matters in the way of payment of debts 
to his compadre Don Igna9io Sanchez, commander of the Colonial 
Guarda Costa felucca Panchita, 

Accordingly, when he rose from table, and after a whispered 
dialogue and reports as to the state of affairs in and around the 
den and island from the men at the signal-stations, he summoned 


112 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


Pedillo. When that worthy appeared below the veranda, — for be 
it remembered that Captain Brand never permitted the inferior 
officials of his band to pollute his apartments, unless, perhaps, as in 
the case of his deceased subordinate, Master Gibbs, it was on urgent 
business,— Captain Brand ordered his gig to be manned. 

Pedillo threw up his hand in token of assent, and walked down 
to the brink of the basin to execute the command. Then, after a 
few minutes. Captain Brand lit a cigar, dismissed the padre, put on 
his fine white Panama straw hat, unlocked a strong cabinet with a 
secret drawer, glanced over a paper before him, and, making a 
rapid calculation, he caught up a heavy bag of doubloons, and left 
the house in charge of Babette. The captain always told his 
guests that his fellows had such love and respect for him that he 
rarely locked up his property, and never placed a guard at his 
door. The truth was that his fellows — scoundrels, miscreants, 
and villains, as they were — stood in such fear and dread of their 
leader that they were glad to keep out of his way. Moreover, he 
never boasted or made any display before them, living on ship- 
board, as on shore, by himself, but always ready and terrible when 
the moment came for action; treating his crew, too, with the most 
rigid impartiality, adhering strictly to his promises and compacts 
with them, and never overlooking an offence. 

So Captain Brand left his dwelling in charge of his dumb house- 
keeper Babette, and, tripping down the rope-ladder from the piazza 
in a clean suit of brown lin^n and straw slippers, his beardless face 
shaded by his broad-brimmed hat from the sun, and the bag of gold 
on his arm, he jauntily walked toward the cove. 

“ Ah ! good-morning, my doctor. Glad to meet you. How are 
the sick ? Doing well, I hope.” 

‘‘ Quite well, sir ; but I was about to call upon you in relation to 

the conversation we had last evening, and ” 

Pardon me, M, le Docteur^ but I have been very busy this 
morning, and am now going to see Don Ignayio on matters of 
importance,” — here the elegant pirate took the cigar from his 
thin lips and held it daintily between his thumb and forefinger in 
the air, — “ and really, monsieur, I am very sorry to miss your visit. 
But,” he added, with one of his usual smiles, “ I shall be at leisure 
this afternoon, and in the cool of the evening we can take a stroll. 
What say you ? ” 

The doctor nodded. 

‘‘ Apropos, docteur, suppose we have a little game of monte after- 


BUSINESS 


113 


ward at your quarters ? I never permit gaming in mine, you 
know. The padre will not object ; and I am confident our compa- 
dre the Tuerto will be delighted.” 

“ As you please, captain,” replied the medico, with a cold, indif- 
ferent air and averted face. “ I will join you in the promenade, 
and I shall be ready to receive you in the evening.” 

“ Hasta huego, amigo / ” said Captain Brand, as he again stuck 
his cigar between his teeth, waved his hand in adieu, and walked 
to his boat. 

“ You don’t love me, doctor,” thought the pirate. “I don’t fear 
you, captain,” thought the doctor. 

It was a touch of high art the way this notorious pirate pitched 
.the bag of gold toward his coxswain, crying : “ Catch that, 
Pedillo ! ” and then the almost girlish manner in which he pattered 
about the beach and held up his trousers, so that he might not 
even get his slippers damp. Had that salt-water been red blood, 
he would not have cared if his feet had been soaked in it. And 
then, too, the little exclamation of joy when he finally stepped into 
the stern-sheets and sat down beneath the awning, while he 
stretched his smooth brown linen legs out on the cushions ! Ob, 
it was certainly a touch of high piratical art ! 

“ The old Centipede is looking a little rusty after her late cruise, 
Pedillo,” throwing his head back to evade a curl of smoke, and 
casting his cold eyes like a rattle of icy hail at the coxswain. 
“ But I am glad Pedro took your place,” — puff, puff, — “ that knife- 
stab prevented you, of course,” — puff, — “ and we shall have her all 
tight and trig again in a day or two.” 

“ 8% senor ! ” said Pedillo respectfully ; “ and how goes Senor 
Gibbs, capitano f ” 

The capitano rolled his icy eyes again at the coxswain and 
replied carelessly : “ Why, Pedillo, our friend Gibbs came to see 
me when the Centipede anchored, but almost before,” — puff, — “ he 
had given me an account of his unfortunate cruise he fell down in 
a fit. The fact is, however,”— puff,— “that, what with hard drink- 
ing and inflammation, which set in on the stump of his lost leg, he 
has been in a very bad way,” — puff, — “ quite in a dangerous condi- 
tion, indeed, requiring all my old Babette’s care and attention,” — 
puff, — “ but this morning the good padre went to see him, and he 
told me a while ago that he left him without fever, and altogether 
tranquil.” 

Pedillo’s wiry mustaches purled of themselves. 

8 


114 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Meanwhile the boat skimmed lightly over the basin, and as the 
captain ceased speaking she ran alongside of the felucca. Don 
Igna9io, with his bright single eye in full burning power, and a 
cigarette between his wrinkled lips, was on the deck of the vessel 
to receive his visitor ; and as he saw the coxswain follow his 
superior, with a weighty bag under his arm, his glimmering orb 
became brighter, if possible, — as if it was piercing through the 
thick canvas of the bag, and counting, ounce by ounce, the contents, 
— and, putting out his forefinger, it was grasped cordially by the 
white hand of Captain Brand. 

^^ Gomo se va? How goes it with my compadre? Stomach and 
head all clear after our long dinner of yesterday ? ” 

The compadre said that his head was particularly clear that ^ 
morning, and as for his stomach, he had not yet enquired ; but if 
the capitano had any doubts as to the former proposition, he had 
better step below and decide for himself. 

In accordance with this ambiguous invitation the visitor and 
commander disappeared down the small cuddy in the after-part of 
the felucca, where was a low, stifling hole of a cabin, dank with 
stale tobacco-smoke, and smelling awfully of rats and roaches. 
There was a little round-table in the middle, and on one side was 
a single berth, with some dirty bedding which had not been 
cleaned, apparently, since the vessel was built. Light was shed 
from a skylight above. 

Captain Brand gave a sniff of disgust as he entered this floating 
sanctum of Don Igna9io, but, without remark, seated himself on a 
canvas stool, and waved a perfumed cambric kerchief before his 
nose. 

Commander Sanchez, catching the inspiration, merely observed 
that it was a little close, certainly, and not so spacious as the superb 
cabin of the schooner, and that sometimes, when lying in a calm 
off the lee side of Cuba, it was hot enough to melt the tail off a 
brass monkey ; but yet it was his duty, and he did not particularly 
mind it. 

Hereupon Captain Brand requested Don Igna9io to produce his 
papers, and they were presently laid upon the table. For a few 
minutes the pirate w^as absorbed in running his cold eyes over the 
accounts — making pencil notes on the margins, and comparing 
them witii a memorandum he took from his pocket ; but at last he 
threw himself back and exclaimed : 

“ Compadre^ the account of old Moreno at the Havana is correct 


BUSINESS 


115 


to a real — three hundred and twelve doubloons and eight hard dol- 
lars. Yours, however, has some few inaccuracies — double commis- 
sions charged here and there ; all losses and sales charged to me, 
and all profits credited to you.” 

Don Igna9io spread out the palms of both his hands toward his 
companion, as if to exorcise such unjust charges from the brain of 
his confederate. 

“ Oh, si, si, compadre / it is as I state, and you know it is true ; 
but, nevertheless, a few dozens of ounces more or less makes no 
difference, and, to make short work, I am ready to pay. But,” said 
Captain Brand, laying a hand on the heavy bag of money beside 
him, “ though I am quite ready to cancel my debts in hard cash 
here on the spot, yet, as I am bound on a long cruise, — Heaven only 
knows where, — I would prefer to keep the gold and pay you in 
something else.” 

Don Igna9io threw his head back and fixed his eye like a parrot 
on the captain, waiting to hear farther. 

“ What have I on hand besides gold ? Well, there are a few 
bales of Mexican cochineal and English broadcloths, and some cases 
of French silks, which you can have at a fair market value; then 
there is all that collection of silver table-service, which you can 
take by weight ; and, besides, lots of rare furniture, which you may 
set your own price upon — altogether much more than enough to 
pay Moreno and you both. What say you, compadre? is it a 
bargain ? or shall I carry the stuff with me, and run the chance of 
disposing of it on the Spanish Main?” 

It was a long time before the crafty old Spaniard could make up 
his mind whether to receive his pay in a simple portable currency, 
or take more bulky matter, with the hope of making double the 
money by the operation. Finally, however, his greed overcame his 
prudence, and he accepted the last proposition, with the understand- 
ing that the articles should be transferred to the felucca the next 
night. 

‘‘ Ah ! ” said Captain Brand, with another sniff of disgust as he 
spat on the dirty floor of the cabin, “ I am glad the affair is settled, 
for I wouldn’t remain another hour in this filthy hole for all the 
money — you have cheated me out of, you old rascal.” 

He said the last portion of this sentence to himself as he emerged 
from the cuddy. 

“ But listen, amigo .^ ” he continued, as they both reached the 
deck. “You will give me duplicate receipts on the part of Senor 


116 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE' “ CENTIPEDE 


Moreno, so that I can forward one to him from the next port I 
visit. And, by the way, suppose you come on shore this afternoon 
for a stroll, and in the evening we will have a little game of 
monte - — eh ? ” 

“ ” (Certainly), returned the commander of the felucca, 

when Captain Brand, with his bag of gold intact under his arm, got 
into his boat and was pulled to the shore. 


CHAPTER XXI 

TREASURE 

“ Gold ! gold 1 gold ! gold 1 
Bright and yellow, hard and cold, 

Molten, graven, hammered, and rolled ; 

Heavy to get, and light to hold ; 

Hoarded, bartered, bought, and sold ; 

Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled ; 

Price of many a crime untold— 

Gold ! gold 1 gold 1 gold 1 ” 

It was long past noon when the pirate returned to his island 
home, and the day was hot, for the sea-breeze had not made, and 
the tropical sun was pouring down its burning rays until the sand 
was roasting as in a furnace, the very rocks throwing off a trem- 
bling mirage of heated air, and the lagoon almost boiling under 
the fiery infiuence. The sailors, with aching heads and parched 
mouths, were swinging in their grass hammocks beneath the sheds ; 
and, save the watchful vigilance of the men at the look-outs and 
battery, the little island was wrapped in repose. 

Captain Brand, however, was as cool as a cucumber ; and, regard- 
less of the heat and indifferent about siesta^ he drew the curtains 
of the saloon and took some active exercise. First, however, he 
desired his faithful Babette to get out some camphor trunks and 
pack the contents of his splendid wardrobe. This operation was 
performed under the critical eye of Captain Brand himself, to 
which he personally lent his aid by stowing away, here and there, 
his caskets, trinkets, and treasures — those which had been pre- 
sented to him by the unfortunate people who had the ill luck to 
make his acquaintance on the high seas or in midnight forays on 
shore. Then the captain opened and rummaged cabinets, bureaus, 
and bookcases, making liberal presents to his trusty housekeeper ; 
and, turning from that occupation, he had all his table furniture 


TREASURE 


117 


spread before him, when he made careful estimates of the value 
of the silver, china, and glass. This concluded. Captain Brand 
ordered Babette to furnish him a slight repast; and, while it was 
preparing, — the captain taking the precaution to bolt his hand- 
maiden in her kitchen, — he went quietly into his bedroom, and when 
he came out, he bore heavy burdens in his muscular arms, all of 
which he laid conveniently near the trap in the floor. Then, letting 
the hatch swing softly down, he lowered the heavy articles by the 
silk rope, as he had Master Gibbs, though not so suddenly, going 
down himself as nimbly as a rat after them. In the vault beneath 
Captain Brand struck a light and set fire to a torch, which blazed 
out luridly and illumined the dark excavation and passages like 
day. Going slowly on, with his burden in his arms, by the path 
by which we traced the padre, he came to the outer door, which 
opened into the fissure in the crag ; and, after a vigorous effort, the 
beam was raised, and he passed out. Once outside, he felt his way 
cautiously, stepping clear of the stagnant pools beneath, and guard- 
ing his head from the jagged rocks above ; and then, lighting his 
way over the stones which had upset the equilibrium of Padre 
Ricardo, he crept slowly into an aperture on the right. 

No serpents or venomous reptiles disturbed the pirate’s progress ; 
for though there were plenty of them coiled or crawling near, yet 
their instinct probably taught them that he was a monster with a 
more deadly poison than themselves, and whose fangs were sharper, 
though his tongue did not hiss a note of warning. Captain Brand 
put down his burden and crept forward on hands and knees, the 
blazing torch lighting up the damp and dripping rocks, all green 
and slimy from the tracks of the snake and lizard. Where the 
narrow fissure seemed to end by a wall of natural rock, the pirate 
rolled aside a large stone at the base, and, scratching away the sand, 
a large copper lock was displayed, in which, after pushing aside 
the hasp, Captain Brand touched a spring, and it opened. Then, 
exerting all the force of his powerful frame, a rough slab of unhewn 
rock yielded to the effort, and rose like ,a vertical door slung by a 
massive hinge at the top. Placing thq large stone at the opening, 
so as to prevent the/ slab falling to its place, the captain stood the 
torch within the opening, and went back for his burden ; then he 
returned, and squeezed himself with it into a small, excavated, 
uneven chamber, where he sat down. 

“ Nasty work,” communed the pirate with himself, “ but a safe 
place to lay up a penny for a rainy day. Let me see. These two 


118 


CAPTAIN BKAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


bags of doubloons and the small one my Gibbs brought me, with 
those three, there, of guineas, and those sacks of dollars, will make 
about ten thousand pounds. That will make me a nest-egg when I 
retire from the profession and return to Scotland. They will have 
forgotten all my boyish follies by that time.” 

Captain Brand alluded to forging his father’s name and other 
little peccadilloes of a similar nature. 

“And I may be elected to Parliament — who knows ? It is some- 
thing of a risk, perhaps, to leave all this pretty coin here, but, then, 
it’s a greater risk to carry it in the schooner,” — he argued both 
ways, — “ and, then, again, damp does not decaj^ pure metal. But,” 
thought Captain Brand, “ suppose somebody should discover this 
little casket in the rock ? Ah ! that’s not probable, for no soul 
besides myself knows of it, and even the very man who made the 
door did not know for what it was intended ; besides, he died long 
ago.” 

Captain Brand had forgotten, in this connection, that the man 
who cut out the stone chamber and door, and fashioned the hinge 
and lock, took too much sugar in his coffee the morning the job 
was finished, and died in horrible convulsions before night. Oh, 
yes, that incident had entirely escaped his memory. 

Captain Brand, having now thoroughly reasoned the matter out, 
gave each of the bags lying on the sand a gentle kick, to get a 
responsive echo from the coin ; and then, creeping out of the 
treasure-chamber, he withdrew the torch, removed the stone, and 
the heavy slab fell again into its place. Tlien, clasping the lock, 
covering it over with sand, and rolling back the stone, he seized 
the torch and quickly returned to the vault beneath his saloon. 
Extinguishing the torch by rubbing it against the stone pavement 
until not a spark was left, by the sunlight, streaming through the 
loop-holes around, he passed to one side and began removing the 
cases of cochineal, silks, and what not, near to the strongly barred 
portcullis door, which opened toward the basin fronting his dwell- 
ing. It was hard work, but Captain Brand seemed to enjoy it ; 
and even after he had arranged the packages intended for shipment 
in his compadre^s felucca, he began again. Going to the farther 
corner of the vault, he stopped before a strong mahogany door, and, 
taking a key from his pocket, unlocked and threw it wide open. It 
was as black as night inside, floored and lined with wood, and 
emitting a choking atmosphere of charcoal and sulphur. Piled 
around the walls were some flfty or a hundred small barrels, with 


TEEASUBE 


119 


copper hoops, and branded on the heads with the word “ Powder.” 
Unmindful of the odor and the rather conhustible material around 
liim, Captain Brand again resumed his work, and rolled a large 
number of the little barrels toward the door-way, near the merchan- 
dise already there, saying to himself the while : 

“ I think that will about fill the Ce^itipede’s magazine, and we 
must make a proper disposition of the remainder.” 

Hereupon Captain Brand, actively bent upon tlie work of dispos- 
ing of his treasures, rolled out a dozen or two more of the little 
barrels. Strange to say, among the very few articles that were 
never presented to him, but actually bought of Sehor Moreno, was 
this highly useful and indispensable material of powder, and he 
therefore set much store by it. And it was with a sigh of regret 
that the pirate stood the little barrels on their ends in a line across 
the great vault of the building, beneath kitchen, bedrooms, and 
saloon, and especially beside the square upright stanchions on which 
the interior of the building rested. Not content with this, he took 
a copper hammer and knocked in all the heads of the little barrels, 
and then, with a scoop of the same metal, dipped out large quanti- 
ties of the black material, and poured thick trains of it from barrel 
to barrel, sometimes capsizing one, but always particularly cautious 
not to rasp a grain of it between his grass slippers and the pave- 
ment. Then he took a piece of match-rope, and sticking one end 
deep into a barrel, just poked the other end out of a loop-hole, to 
be in readiness whenever Captain Brand should deem proper to 
touch his lighted cigar to it. 

“ There,” said Captain Brand, “ that piece of tow will burn 
about thirty or forty minutes, and then — stand from under ! ” 

Ascending the hatchway again with the agility of a cat, he drew 
up and secured the trap, and in ten minutes afterward he was 
freshly attired in a nice pair of India panjammers, a grass-cloth 
jacket and vest, — with, of course, the usual knick-knacks in his 
pockets, — and seated at table, where his busy housekeeper had 
placed a broiled chicken and a bottle of old Bordeaux before him. 


120 


CAPTAIN BBAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


CHAPTER XXII 

" PLEASURE 

“ But ever, from that hour, ’tis said, 

He stammered and he stuttered, 

As if an axe went through his head 
With every word he uttered. 

He stuttered o’er blessing, he stuttered o’er ban, 

He stuttered, drunk or dry ; 

And none but he and the fisherman 
Could tell the reason why.” 

‘‘ Babette,” said Captain Brand, as he tapped a spoon against 
his coffee-cup and puffed his cigar, while the Stout, dumb negress 
was removing the remains of the light dinner — “ Babette, old girl, 
you know that we are going to leave here in a few days, and I 
should like to know whether you care to go with us or remain here 
on the island.” 

The negress made a guttural grunt of assent, and nodded her 
head till the ends of her Madras turban fluttered. 

“Ho, you do, eh? Well, my Baba, I shall be sorry to leave 
you, for you will be very lonely here, and it may be a long, very 
long time before I come back.” 

Babette jerked her chin up this time and did not grunt. 

“It’s all the same, eh, old lady? Well, I shall leave enough to 
eat to last you a lifetime; but you will have to change your 
quarters, my Baba, and live in the padre’s shed, for I — a — don’t 
think this house will be habitable long after I am gone.” 

The negress gave another grunt and nod of assent. 

“Yes? Well, old lady, the matter is decided, then; but, in 
case you should have any visitors here after we have gone, you 
won’t take any trouble to describe what you have seen here ? No ? 
That shake of your head convinces me — not if they roast you 
alive ? ” 

The hideous sign of understanding that the woman expressed 
in her dumb way would have convinced any body without the 
trouble of uttering a word. 

Bueno !'''’ said Captain Brand ; “that will do for to-day.” 

Rising as he spoke, he stepped to a cabinet, slipped a large 


PLEASURE 


121 


handful of doubloons in his trousers pocket, put on his hat, and 
walked out. 

The sea-breeze swept over the island with its full strength, 
making the lofty cocoa-nuts bow their tufted tops, the palm-trees 
rustle their broad, flat leaves and clash the stems together. The 
mangroves bent, too, before the wind, and the sand eddied up in 
tiny whirls amid the great expanse of cactus, while the vessels 
swung with taut cables to their anchors. Even Captain Brand’s 
hat was nearly blown off his dry, light hair as he joined his com- 
padre Don Igna9io at the landing ; and the sandy dust blinded — 
though only for a moment — that one-eyed individual’s optic, and 
put out his cigarette as they struggled against the influence of the 
breeze. But yet they walked on in the direction of the sheds, and 
as they passed through the court-yard, where the men were loung- 
ing about in yawning groups or sitting under the piazza, playing 
cards, — getting up and touching their hats as their chief passed, — 
Senor Pedillo accosted him thus : 

“ Capitano, the people are thirsty, and desire a barrel of wine.” 

“ Not a drop, Senor Pedillo — not so mucli as would wet the bill 
of a mosquito. To-morrow at daylight let all hands be called, 
for we have work to do, and we must be quick to do it.” 

Pedillo slunk away, abashed by the positive tone of his com- 
mander ; and Captain Brand, with his companion, passed on to the 
domicile of the padre and doctor. Pausing at the open door of the 
shed, they looked in. The padre was lying flat on his back on his 
narrow bed, with his mouth wide open, and snoring like a key-bugle 
with leaky stops, while his beads and crucifix — misplaced emblems 
in contact with drunkenness and debauchery — were reposing on his 
ample chest. The doctor was sitting beside his own couch, whisper- 
ing words of childish comfort to the little boy, whose pale cheeks 
and brown curls reposed on the pillow of the bed. The poor child’s 
thin, limp fingers rested like the petals of a drooping lily in the 
dark, bony hand of his friend, and his dim hazel eyes were turned 
sadly toward him. 

“ Halloa, amigos ! ” shouted Captain Brand, in a hearty voice. 
“We are losing the glorious sea-breeze. Yamanos! let us take a 
stroll to the Tiger’s Trap.” 

Hereupon Captain Brand entered the room and gave the padre a 
violent tweak of the nose, at the same time puffing a volume of 
cigar smoke into his beastly mouth, which combined effort brought 
the holy father to life in a trice, choking and sputtering, as he 


122 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


arose, a jargon of paternosters, which an indifferent hearer might 
have mistaken for a volley of execrations, so savagely were they 
uttered. 

“ Take a sip of Geneva, my padre. There it is on the table. 
Ah ! do you call half a bottle a sip ? Well ! Come, doctor, let us 
be moving.” 

Down by the narrow gorge of the inlet, and over the smooth 
rocks and shelly shore, the party took their way, Don Igna9io lead- 
ing with the amiable priest, on whom he glared with his malevolent 
eye as if — he not being a person from whom money or its equivalent 
could be squeezed — the greedy old Spaniard would like to transfix 
him with a glance. In the rear came Captain Brand and the doctor, 
the former as gay as a bird — of the vulture species — and his com- 
panion grave, severe, and preoccupied. Stopping as they reached 
the Tiger’s Trap battery, where, after Captain Brand had made a 
close inspection of the guns, and held short confabs with the men 
who rose to receive him, he moved away a few steps, and, resting 
his body against the lee side of a projecting rock, removed the 
cigar from his frozen lips and said : 

“ The arguments you have urged, monsieur^ and the views you 
entertain, have a certain amount of reason in them. It is true you 
were deceived in coming here, but yet you swore to remain and not 
betray us when you did come. Well, — ah ! don’t interrupt me ; I 
divine what you are going to say, — you did not know what our real 
character was. Perhaps not. Nevertheless, I cannot consent to 
your going away with that old rascal Don Igna9io, there — that is, 
if he would take you, which I think he would not, as your presence 
on board might compromise him with the Cuban authorities ; and,” 
went on Captain Brand, as he crossed his legs, and held his fine 
Panama hat on his head as a ruffle of the sea-breeze shot around the 
rock, ‘‘ with respect to your remaining here on the island, you will 
only have that dumb old beast of a Babette for company ; and it 
is highly probable that the English or American cruisers will be 
down upon you before a change of the moon, and they might — a — 
hang you, perhaps, for a pirate. Ho ! ho ! ” 

“ If Don Igna9io declines to take me. Captain Brand, of course 
I cannot go in the felucca ; but, let come what will, I am resolved 
not to sail in the Centipede^'' 

The pirate regarded the doctor for a moment with a cold, freez- 
ing look, not wanting, however, in a partial glimmer of respect and 
admiration, as he thus resolutely stated his determination ; and 


PLEASUBE 


123 


then, putting his finger lightly on the doctor’s arm, as he saw Don 
Igna9io and the padre draw near, he said impressively, in a low tone : 

“il/. le Docteur, do not make hasty resolutions. I command 
here, and my will is law. I will turn the matter over, how- 
ever, in my mind, and give you a final decision before we part to- 
night. Now, let us return. The sun is down, and the rocks are 
slippery.” 

“ Well, Caballeros^ let us have a little social amusement,” said 
Captain Brand, as he sat down at the table in the padre’s and doc- 
tor’s quarters and wound up his splendid watch, the present from 
the Captain-General of Cuba.^ “But bear in mind that we must 
break up at midnight, for our compadre, here, has a multitude of 
articles to get on board his felucca to-night, and I must be astir at 
daylight.” 

Did Captain Brand think, while he turned the key of that gold ' 
repeater, of the blood-stained wretch he had put to death in the 
morning, who was lying stark and stiff in his narrow, damp resting- 
place, or of the poor little sufferer who had been torn from his 
heart-broken mother sleeping near him ? Oh, no, certainly not. 
Captain Brand was thinking of a little game of monte, 

*The padre lugged out a small store of dollars and a gold ounce 
or two, and other stray bits of gold, down to quartitos or eights of 
doubloons — all of it donations made him for remission of sins and 
absolutions, presented at one time and another from the pirates of 
his flock, such donations falling in pretty rapidly after a successful 
cruise, but dwindling away to most contemptible gifts long- before 
his flock took to sea again. 

Captain Brand was very liberal to his crew, dividing a great deal 
of money with them ; but, since he rarely visited any foreign ports, 
they had little chance of squandering it ; and in the end it served 
merely as a gaming currency to play with, and eventually coming 
back to him as contributions for stores, ammunition, rigging, and 
so forth. The captain, therefore, was a large gainer by the opera- 
tion, as most of the articles in eating and drinking, and the vessel’s 
outfit, were — as we know — generally presented to him, so that he 
was enabled to stow away the cash for future gratification. 

Don Igna9io Sanchez was likewise a moneyed man, and came 
provided with a long pouch of solid gold, which he made into little 
piles before him of the exact size of those of the captain. The 
doctor, however, declined to play, and sat an indifferent spectator 
of the game. 


124 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


“ Let US begin, senores ! ” exclaimed the Don, as he rapidly 
shuffled the cards, and his keen, black spark of fire lit up with 
animation at the rich prospect before him. “We are losing precious 
time. I’ll be banquero / Vama7ios ! ” 

So they began. The cards were dealt, and the betting went on. 
The padre forgot breviary and beads in his excitement, and as his 
little pointings were swept away he forgot, too, the sacred ejacula- 
tions he was wont to lard his discourse with, and he became posi- 
tively profane. The captain won largely in the beginning, and 
jeered his compadre with great zest and enjoyment ; but that one- 
eyed, rapacious old Spanish rascal was not in the least disturbed, 
and bided his time. At first the conversation was light and jovial. 
Captain Brand insisting upon the doctor describing minutely how 
he had hacked his friend Gibbs’s leg off with a hand-saw, laughing 
hugely thereat, and wiping the icy tears from his cold blue eyes 
with his delicate cambric handkerchief. Then the fascinating game 
began to fiuctuate, and the luck set back with a steady run into the 
piles of the banker. Captain Brand liked as little to lose his money 
as any other gambler in cards, stocks, or dice, and he was some- 
what chafed in spirit ; but what especially irritated him was losing 
it to that wrinkle-faced, one-eyed, greedy old scoundrel, with no 
possible hope of ever seeing a dollar of it again. As for the padre, 
he was dead broke ; and since his friends would not lend him a 
real, and the banker did not play upon credit, he sat moodily by, 
and gloated over the winnings of the Tuerto, cursing his own luck 
and that of his companions likewise. 

“ Ho ! ” growled Captain Brand, “ maldito d la sola / I have 
lost my last stake ! ” 

Even while he spoke, the poor little boy murmured, in a sobbing 
voice : “ Mamma, 'ch^re mamma ! ” and turned uneasily in his little 
nest from his fitful slumber. 

“That crying imp again!” said the now angry pirate, as he 
hurled the padre’s half-empty gin-jug in the direction of the couch, 
which crashed against the wall and fell in a shower of glass splin- 
ters over the little sleeper. 

Tlie child gave one terrified shriek, and, starting from the bed in 
his little night-dress, now soiled and torn, ran and threw himself 
on his knees before the doctor. Another bottle was raised aloft 
by the long, muscular arm of the pirate ; but before you could 
wink that arm was arrested, and the missile twisted from his grasp. 

“ For shame, you coward ! Don’t harm the boy. He will die 


* PLEASURE 


125 


soon enough in tliis awful den without having his brains dashed 
out.” 

“ Ho, M. le Docteur / ” muttered the villain, looking as if he 
would like to taste the heart’s blood of the resolute man who stood 
before him, as he pushed a hand into his waistcoat pocket, “ do 
you presume to call names and oppose my will ? ” 

But, controlling his passion with a violent contortion of the face 
that would have made one’s blood run cold to see it, he changed 
his tone, and said : 

“Nonsense, doctor ; you seem to take rather a strong interest in 
the brat — possibly an injudicious one ; but, since he is my prize, you 
know, by law, come — what will you give for him ? Ah ! happy 
thought : we will play for him ! There, deal away, compadre. 
Sota and cavallo ! I take the knave again, and you ten doubloons 
against the boy on the horse.” 

The doctor said not a word, but nodded assent, and seemed 
absorbed in the game. 

“ Presto ! Turn the cards, you old sinner ! Quick ! Por Dios ! 
horse has kicked me, and the knave loses ! Monsieur, the brat is 
yours ! ” 

Then, starting up. Captain Brand hastily pulled out his watch, 
and said : Caballeros^ the time is up ! I must say good- 

night.” 

Don Ignayio’s brown, thin fingers, like a dentist’s steel nippers, 
laid down the cards, and carefully picked up his winnings even to 
the smallest bit of the precious metal, and dropped it piece by 
piece into his long pouch, following them each with his glittering 
eye, like a magpie peering into a narrow-necked bottle, and smiling 
with his wrinkled old lips as the dull chink of the coin fell upon 
his ear. When he had performed this operation, he tied up the 
mouth of the bag as if he was choking somebody to death ; and 
then, twitching something which was partly hidden in his sleeve, 
he arose in readiness to go out. 

As, however. Captain Brand turned to follow his compadre he 
looked carelessly toward the doctor, and said ; 

“ By the way, monsieur^ I have made up my mind with respect 
to our conversation to-day, and you shall remain on the island. 
No thanks. Adieu. Now, Don Igna9io, if your men and boats 
are at the cove, we will make sharp work with your business. 
Yctmanos / ” 


126 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


CHAPTER XXIII 

WORK 

“ Skeleton hounds that will never be fatter. 

All the domestic tribes of hell, 

Shrieking for flesh to tear and tatter, 

Bones to shatter. 

And limbs to scatter, 

And who it is that must furnish the latter 
Those blue-looking men know well ! ” 

When the pirate stood in liis saloon on the morning subsequent 
to the pleasurable events of the Sunday previous, he, as well as 
his saloon, presented altogether a different aspect. The apart- 
ment had been stripped of all its rare and costly furniture, cab- 
inets, candelabra, plate, china, and glass, and nothing of value was 
left save the camphor trunks on the floor, the cane-bottomed settee, 
a few chairs, and a table. All the beautiful things, ornamental 
as well as useful, had disappeared, even to the rich packages of 
merchandise in the great vault beneath. The late possessor, how- 
ever, of all that worldly wealth did not appear to be at all dis- 
composed, or to cherish the faintest pang of regret at his loss. 
In truth, he seemed to be relieved from an uncomfortable load of 
responsibility, and feeling assured, perhaps, that in roaming about 
the world he could collect a still more valuable collection, — only 
give him time, — and he would exercise his critical taste with every 
pleasing variety. It was thus he consoled himself as he stood there 
in his now denuded room, attired in a pair of coarse canvas trousers, 
a red flannel shirt, with a short, sharp hanger on his hip, and a 
double-barrelled pistol in his belt — quite the costume in which he 
so singularly shocked Dona Lucia, whose lovely miniature once 
hung there on the wall in company with the other miserable vic- 
tims of his lust. 

Captain Brand had just entered his dwelling, having been up 
and actively occupied ever since we last parted with him. Now 
he had come for a cup of tea and dry toast; and, while Babette 
was bringing that simple breakfast, the pirate stood, tall, erect, and 
poweiful, with one muscular arm resting high above his head on 
the side of the door-way, and the other lying lightly on the shark’s- 


WORK 


127 


skin hilt of his cutlass, looking out to seaward — a very model, as 
he was, of a cool, prudent, desperate villain. 

“ Ah, there you go, you crafty old miser, in your guarda costa ! 
Take care, my compadre, of that reef. If that felucca’s keel 
touches one of those coral ledges, there won’t be a tooth-pick left 
of her in ten minutes. San Antonio ! but that was a close shave ! 
How the sharks would rasp your bones, for there is no flesh on 
them ! Grazed clear, eh ? Bueno! now you’re in blue water, you 
rapacious, scoundrelly old wretch, and make the most of it.” 

Captain Brand waved his hand in adieu to the felucca, which, 
with the wind off shore, had crept through the coral gate-way, and, 
with her great lateen-sail and green, glancing bottom, was rising 
and falling on the long swell as she slipped away to the eastward. 
He then gulped down his tea, made one or two savage bites at his 
toast, and again walked out to the veranda, descended the ladder, 
and took his course toward the basin. 

There, too, the scene had changed ; and instead of the tranquil, 
shelly shore,only agitated by the musical rippling from the pure little 
inlet, the faint cry of the sea-gull, or the chirps of the lizards in the 
crevices of the rocks across the basin, those sounds had given place 
to the nimble feet and voices of busy sailors. Tlie Centipede^ also, 
had been towed from her moorings to a jetty which projected into 
the water from the shore, and there she lay, careened down, her 
keel half out of the water, with a dozen of her crew scrubbing her 
lean sides till the green-coated copper came flashing out in the sun- 
light like burnished gold. With her slanting masts lashed to the 
jetty, carpenters were engaged reducing the length of the fore-mast, 
and trimming out a spar for a new bowsprit. The long gun, with 
its carriage, lay near, and artisans were at work at a temporary 
forge, hammering out bolts and straps to replace those which were 
weakened by long service. On the shore, too, were a score or more 
of the piratical gang, — Spaniards, negroes, Indians, Italians, and so 
forth, — ferocious-looking scoundrels, busy as bees, splicing and 
knotting ropes, stretching new rigging, cutting running gear from 
tlie coils of hemp or Manila-grass rope, or making spun-yarn and 
chafing-mats ; while beneath the low mat sheds hard by sail-makers 
were stitching away with their shining needles, making a set of 
square saifs for the changed rig of the Centipede^ or repairing 
old sails. But this was not all ; for in a shed beyond was the 
armorer, with a few hands, grinding pikes and cutlasses, and clean- 
ing small-arms ; while farther still was the gunner and his mate, 


128 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


filling powder-cases for the long gun and swivels, and making up 
musket and pistol ball-cartridges. 

In the midst of all these busy throngs moved Captain Brand, 
hither and thither, from vessel to forge, from sails to rigging, 
giving clear, sharp directions in various languages — commendation 
here, reproof there; inspecting with his own cold eyes every thing; 
judging of all ; quick, active, ready ; never at a loss for an expe- 
dient, and urging on the work like a thoroughbred seaman as he 
was, who knew his own duty and how to make others do theirs. 
So went on the refitting of the Centipede^ all through the burning 
hot, tropical day ; and while the half-exhausted crew took a respite 
in the scorching noon for dinner, still their leader toiled on. Or, if 
he took a rest, it was closely scrutinizing the progress made by his 
men, in puffing a cigar like to a small high-pressure engine, or in 
clambering up the steep face of the crag to the signal-station, 
where he would peer away in all directions around the island — 
never missing the glance of a pelican’s pinion or the leap of a fish 
out of water. Then he would return to the cove and begin anew 
the work. It was no longer the elegant Captain Brand, in knee- 
breeches, point-lace sleeves, and velvet doublet, seated at his lux- 
urious table, groaning under splendid plate, fine wines, and brill- 
iant wax-lights, and dispensing a profuse hospitality, but Captain 
Brand, the pirate, in tarry rig, amid sailors, sails, and cordage, 
munching a bit of hard biscuit at times, or a cube of salt-junk out 
of a mess-kid, but ever ready, never weary, and always up to the 
professional mark. 

At the first gray flush of dawn on the following day Captain 
Brand was astir again, and before the sun went down behind the 
waves the schooner Centipede had been transformed into a brigan- 
tine, her fore-mast reduced, new standing rigging fitted for it, with 
a new bowsprit and head-booms, her rail raised four or five feet 
by shifting bulwarks, and a temporary house built on deck over 
the long gun. She was also painted afresh, with a white streak ; 
and, with false head-boards on her bows, to hide her snake-like 
snout of a cut-water, no one, unless in the secret, could have known 
that the clumsy box of a merchantman lying there was once the 
low, swift, piratical schooner which had made so notorious a name 
in the West Indies. Still the work was driven on with scarcely 
any intermission — a few hours’ repose for the crew at night, and 
an hour for dinner in the day ; but as for Captain Brand, he never 
slept at all — a doze for an hour or two, perhaps, on his settee in 


WORK 


129 


the saloon, and a cup of tea in the morning, with cigar-smoke, 
satisfied his frugal requirements. The next day, by noon, the 
water and stores were got out on board the brigantine, her 
magazine stowed, the dunnage of the crew transferred from the 
sheds, the captain’s camphor trunks on board and cabin in order, 
the sails bent, anchors on the bows, and, swinging to a hawser 
made fast to the rocks, the vessel was ready to put to sea at any 
moment. 

“ Pedillo,” said Captain Brand, as his vigilant gaze took in all 
around him and then rested on the Centipede — “ Pedillo, you may 
warp the vessel down to the mouth of the Tiger’s Trap so soon as 
you’ve strewed some fagots ready for lighting in the sheds. When 
you get to the Trap, tell the gunner to take a gang of hands and 
give that battery a good coat of coal tar, plug the vents of the guns, 
and bury carriages and all in the sand beside the magazine. Tell 
him to destroy the powder, and pitch overboard all he can’t con- 
ceal ; and let him bear a hand about it, for we shall sail with the 
last of the sea-breeze toward sunset. 

‘‘ And, Pedillo,” — here the pirate’s voice dropped to a whisper, — 
“ come back after the vessel is secured, and bring that Maltese 
fellow without a nose with you. It will be as well, perhaps, for you 
to provide yourself with a few fathoms of raw-hide strips, as we 
may have occasion to use it. Qiiien sabe ? ” 

Senor Pedillo’s black, wiry beard fairly bristled as he grinned 
understandingly at his superior ; and, getting into a bit of a canoe 
at the jetty, he paddled off to the brigantine to execute his orders. 

Meanwhile Captain Brand slowly bent his steps toward the house 
under the crag, and entered his spacious saloon for the last time. 
On the bare table, too, was his last dinner, served on a few odd 
dishes and cracked plates. 

“ Babette, old girl,” said he, as he sat down to this repast, “ you 
have a bottle of good Madeira and a flask of Hock left ? No ? ” 

The negress shook her head violently, made the sign of the 
cross, and by other telegraphic motions gave her master to under- 
stand that Padre Ricardo had dropped in, drained both bottles, and 
then had reeled off on board the brigantine. 

“ The drunken, selfish beast ! ” muttered Captain Brand ; ‘‘it will 
be the last taste of wine he will swallow for a long time.” 

The pirate was quite correct in his schemes for the padre’s 
reform, for the next copious draught the holy father imbibed was 
the briny salt-water from the Caribbean Sea. 

9 


130 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“ Well, my Baba, a drop of water, then. Thank you, old lady. 
Here’s to your health while I am gone. There — you need not 
blubber so over my hand — good-by ! ” And so passed away from 
Captain Brand’s sight the only creature in the wide world who 
loved him. 


CHAPTER XXIV 

CAUGHT IN A NET 

“ I closed my lids and kept them closa, 

And the balls like pulses beat ; 

For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky, 

Lay like a load on my weary eye, 

And the dead were at my feet.” 

Captain Brand did not linger long over his frugal dinner, and 
when he had finished, as if he had not had enough exercise for the 
last three days, he began to walk with long, nervous strides across 
the saloon. 

‘‘ He called me coward, did he ? and dared to lay his hands on 
me ! By my right arm, my Creole doctor. I’ll teach you not to 
call hard names again, and I’ll paralyze your hands for all time to 
come.” 

The pirate’s jaws grated like a rusty bolt as he hissed out these 
murderous threats ; but as his eye caught the squirming green silk 
rope as he swung round on his heel in his walk he paused and 
muttered : 

“ That bit of stuff may be of use. I’ll take it by way of pre- 
caution.” 

Hereupon he rapidly unrove the cord and coiled it away in the 
bosom of his shirt. Then, looking at his watch, he said ; “ Ho ! 
the time approaches, and here comes Pedillo.” 

Lighting a cigar, he left his dwelling for the last time ; and, 
after pausing to hear a report from Pedillo that his orders had 
been executed, and the vessel all ready for sea, and whispering a 
few precise directions in return. Captain Brand mounted up the 
steep face of the crag again, and accosted the signal-man at the 
station. 

“ Any thing in sight ? ” 

“ Nothing to the eastward, capitanOy but it has been a little hazy 
here away to the southward since meridian, and I can hardly see 
through it.” 


CAUGHT IN A NET 


131 


Bueno, my man ! give me the glass. You can go on board the 
brigantine. I’ll take a last look myself.” 

While the signal-man scrambled down the crag, Captain Brand 
rested the spy-glass on the trunk of the single cocoa-nut-tree, 
whose skeleton-like fingers of leaves rattled above his head 
like a gibbeted pirate in chains, and then he searched steadily 
along the hazy horizon. As he was about, however, to withdraw 
his eye from the tube something — a mere dim speck — arrested his 
attention. Quickly dropping the glass, and as rapidly rubbing the 
large lens and carefully adjusting the joints, he raised it again, as 
a backwoodsman does his rifle with an Indian for a mark. For 
full five minutes the pirate stood as motionless as the crag beneath 
him, intently glaring through the tube at the speck in the distance. 
At last he let the glass fall at his side, and, pulling out his watch 
with a jerk, muttered to himself : 

‘‘It is a large and lofty ship ; but, should she be a cruiser after 
me, she will find the bird flown and the nest empty. Ho, now for 
action ! ” 

Springing down the precipitous declivity as he spoke, he paused a 
moment at a loop-hole of the vault beneath his dwelling, and, puff- 
ing his cigar into a bright coal, carefully twitched the match-rope 
which led to the train, opened the loose strands, and placed the fire 
to it. Waiting an instant till he saw the nitre sparkle as it ignited, 
he moved away with long, swinging strides toward the sheds. 
There, glancing through the now deserted halls the crew had occu- 
pied, where quantities of fagots and kindling-wood and barrels of 
pitch were standing, he continued on till he came to the quarters of 
the doctor. The doctor was standing at the open door on the 
thatched piazza, looking quietly at the brigantine, whose sails were 
loosed, and the vessel hanging by a stern-fast, with her head just 
abreast the Tiger’s Trap. 

“ Ah ! 3L le Docteur, I have merely called to bid you a final 
adieu before I go on board; and as I have a few moments left, 
and a few words to say, suppose jmu walk with me toward the 
chapel. Allons ! there is a suspicious sail off there,” waving his 
glass in the direction, “ and I wish to take a good look at her. 

“ Doctor,” continued Captain Brand, as they reached the little 
esplanade facing the graves and church, “you will have no one left 
here on our island save our dumb Babette, and the chances are 
rather remote for your getting away, without, perhaps, some of the 
West India fleet should happen to drop in here, which I do not 


132 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


think probable. I rely, however, upon yoiir keeping your oath, 
even if they do come, and not betraying the secrets you are 
acquainted with.” 

The pirate said this in an olf-hand, friendly way as he had his 
glass levelled toward the sail he saw in the offing. 

“ Captain Brand,” replied the doctor, “ I was deceived in coming 
here, as you well know ; but I shall religiously keep my oath for 
the twenty years, as I swore to do. After that, if we both live so 
long, my tongue and arm shall speak and strike.” 

The pirate stepped back a little as he shut up the joints of the 
spy«glass with a crash, and, with a scowl of hate and vengeance 
combined, said, in a loud voice, while his cold eyes gleamed like a 
ray of sunlight on an iceberg : 

‘‘ And I, too, keep my oaths ; and, without waiting twenty years, 
I strike now ! ” 

Even while the treacherous villain spoke, two swarthy, sinewy 
scoundrels crept stealthily from within the chapel, and, with the 
soft, slimy movements of serpents, as their leader uttered the last 
word they sprung at the back of the doctor and wound their coils 
around him, twining strong strands of raw-hide rope about his arms, 
legs, and body. Bound as in a frame of elastic steel, their victim 
was thrown, face downward, upon the sand. 

‘‘ Be quick, Pedillo ! the time is flying ! Gomez, bring the 
corpse trestle from the chapel.” 

In a moment a wooden frame with legs, and stretched across 
with a bed of light wire, which had been used to carry the mortal 
remains of the pirates — and the poor women, too, beside them — to 
their last resting-places, was brought out from the little church. 
Then the bound victim was laid on it, face upward ; again the hide 
thongs were passed in numerous plaits until the body was lashed 
firmly to the trestle. 

‘‘ Place it on the edge of that rock, there, with his head toward 
the cocoa-nut-tree. Take this silk rope, Gomez, and clove-hitch it 
well up the trunk. There, that will do. I myself will perform the 
last act of politeness.” 

Saying this, the pirate widened the noose of the cord, and, slip- 
ping it over the doctor’s head, placed the knot carefully under his 
left ear. The victim gave no groan or sigh, and his dark, luminous 
eyes were .fixed on the blue sky above him. 

le Docteur,^"* said Captain Brand, as he hurriedly looked 
at his watch and raised his hat, “ I have but one word of 


THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE NET 


133 


caution to give you : if you struggle, you will have your neck 
broken before you are stung to death ! Talk as much as you like ; 
but, as Babette is a long way olf, and hard of hearing, I doubt if 
she comes to your assistance ! Adieu ! ” 

The retreating figures went leaping toward the inlet, and as they 
rushed through the sheds applied a torch to the combustible 
material deposited there, and then sprung on toward the Tiger’s 
Trap. A few minutes afterward the doctor turned his eyes in that 
direction and saw the sails of the brigantine sheeted home and run 
up like magic ; and, taking the last breath of the sea-breeze on her 
quarter, the stern-fast was cast off, and she slipped easily out of 
the gorge-like channel. Still, as those dark, stern eyes watched 
the receding hull of the Centipede^ a sudden jar shook the island, 
a heavy column of white smoke rose from below the crag like a 
water-spout, and, spreading out like a palm-tree, came down in a 
deluge of timber, stones, and dust, while sheets of vivid flame 
leaped out from the gloom, and an awful peal, followed by a heavy, 
booming roar, that shook the crag to its base, announced the ruin 
of the pirates’ den. At the same time the red fires gleamed in fit- 
ful flashes from the sheds, and, rapidly making headway, all at 
once burst forth in wild conflagration, till the whole nest was 
wrapped in flames. The shock of the explosion and the fires killed 
the wind, and a lurid pall of smoke and cinders hung like a gloomy 
canopy over the island. 


CHAPTER XXV 

THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE NET 

“ There passed a weary time. Each throat 
Was parched, and glazed each eye. 

A weary time 1 a weary time I 
How glazed each weary eye ! 

When, looking westward, I beheld 
A something in the sky.” 

As the powder vomited forth its dreadful thunder, and as the 
stones and timbers from the blasted den were hurled high in air, 
and scattered by the explosive whirlwind far and near, some of the 
splinters and fragments came down in dropping hail upon the red- 
tiled sheds and the doctor’s dwelling. At the first shock the 
lonely child started up in his little bed, and while the earth rocked, 


134 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


and the stones came pelting and crashing on the roof, he screamed : 
“Mamma ! mamma !” No loving echo came back to those inno- 
cent lips, and naught was heard save the crackling of the flame 
beyond, licking its tongue along the dry timber and roaring joy- 
ously as it was fed. “ Mamma ! chlre mamma ! ” 

Yet no answer, and still the savage flames came careering wildly 
on till the very stones of the court-yard cracked like slates, while 
the burning flakes and cinders loaded the air, and the eddying 
volumes of smoke reeled in dense clouds, and poured their sulfoca- 
ting breath into the room where the forsaken child was crying. 

One more panting, helpless cry, and the little fellow instinctively 
flew through the open doorway, where, blinded and choking with 
the devastating element around him, he staggered feebly beyond 
its influence. Yet again a flurry of thick smoke lighted up the 
forked and vivid flames and chased the child before it. 

Oh, fond mother ! in your poignant grief for the loss of your 
poor drowned boy you were spared the agony of seeing him, even 
in imagination, struggling faintly before that tempest of fire and 
smoke, calling plaintively for her on whose tender bosom his head 
had rested, while his naked feet were cut and bruised by the sharp 
coral shingle beneath them. But onward and onward the boy wan- 
dered, and, fortunately, his footsteps took the path into a purer 
atmosphere, which led toward tlie chapel. Here he looked timidly 
around at the lurid glare behind him, then entered the church and 
sunk down exhausted, his feverish, smarting eyes closing in slum- 
ber on the hard pavement beneath the image of the Virgin Mary. 

Then came the close and sultry night — no murmur of a land- 
wind to drive the smoky canopy away — the black cinders falling 
in burning rain on basin, thicket, and lagoon, till even the very 
lizards and scorpions hid themselves deep within the holes and 
crevices of the rocks. Midnight came. The dim and silent stars 
were obscured by a veil of heavy clouds, and, with a low, mutter- 
ing sound of thunder, the vapory masses unclosed their portals, 
and the rain fell in torrents. The flames, now nearly satisfied with 
their work, leaped out occasionally from the fallen ruins, but were 
quenched by the tropical deluge, and smouldered away amid the 
charred and saturated timbers. Then the thunder ceased, the liz- 
ards and scorpions came from their retreats, the teal fluttered over 
the lagoon, and the noise of the waves bursting over the reef came 
again to the ear. Still there was no breath of air ; the atmosphere 
was thick and damp ; and out from the mangrove thickets and 


THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE NET 


135 


wide expanse of cactus swarms of insects, mosquitoes, and sand- 
flies in myriads went buzzing and singing in tlie sultry, murky night. 

So dragged on the weary liours until day broke again, and the 
sea-birds floated off seaward for their morning’s meal, and the 
flying-fish skipped with their silvery wings from wave to wave, as 
the dolphins glittered in gold and purple after them below the blue 
-water. No bright and blazing sun came over the hills of Cuba to 
light up this picture, but all was blight and gloom, with murky 
masses of dead, still clouds hanging low down over the island. 

The little suffering boy, lying there on the coral pavement, w’ith 
his head resting on the thin, delicate arm, wdth pale, sweet face 
turned half upward toward the Virgin, gave a feeble cry and 
opened his eyes. He rose to a sitting posture, with his little hands 
resting on his lap and little ragged shirt. Then, with his dim hazel 
eyes fixed upon the painting, while the tears coursed slowdy down 
his pallid cheeks, he put forth his hands in a childisli movement of 
supplication, and murmured again his tearful prayer : Mamma ! 
mamma ! ” 

Presently rising, he turned his feeble footsteps toward the door- 
way, and as his eye caught the stone bowl of holy-w^ater standing 
on its coral pedestal near the portal he bent down his feverish head 
and slaked his parched lips. Revived by this, he timidly looked 
out from the chapel, and, shuddering as he beheld the gloomy wil- 
derness around, he once more screamed, in a thin, piercing cry: 
“ Mamma ! oh, ma ch^re mamma ! ” 

That was the last sad wail for help for many and many a long 
year that those infant lips were destined to utter ; and when he 
again called upon that dear name, his manly arms would clasp a 
joyful mother to his swelling heart. 

“Henri !” came back like an echo in a clear shout to the shriek 
of the boy. “ Henri ! Henri ! ” w^as reiterated again and again, 
each time in a voice that seemed to split asunder the canopy of 
clouds above. 

The boy started and listened. 

“ Henri ! Henri ! this way to your good friend the doctor ! 
Quick, my little boy ! ” 

Now with the step of a fawn the child ran out upon the sharp, 
sandy esplanade, and, following the voice as he tripped lightly 
through the narrow pathway between the needle-pointed cactus, 
in a moment he stopped, with a look of horror, beside the trestle 
on which the bound and nearly naked man was stretched. 


136 


CAPTAIN BBAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


Ay, it was a sight to make a strong and stalwart man turn pale 
with sickness and horror, much less a baby boy of three or 
four years old. There lay the man, all through the dreadful night, 
with swarms on swarms and myriads upon myriads of stinging 
insects biting and sipping and sucking his life-blood with distract- 
ing agony away. Ah ! think of the hellish torture often practised 
by those bloody pirates upon their victims in the West Indies ! 
The bound man’s eyes were closed, the lips and cheeks puffed and 
swollen out of all human proportions, and the inflamed body was 
one glowing red and angry surface. No needle could have been 
stuck where the venomous stings of a thousand sand-flies or 
mosquitoes had not already sucked blood. Ay, well might the 
child start back with horror ! 

“ It is your friend the doctor, Henri,” he said, in French, still in 
a strong but kindly voice. ‘‘ I cannot see you, but get me a 
knife. No, my child, never mind — 5’^ou cannot find one ; don’t 
leave me.” 

Here the child timidly put his little hands out and brushed away 
the poisonous insects, and then touched the doctor’s face. 

“Ah ! Henri, see if you cannot slip that pretty silk rope over my 
head. Yes, that is the way — doncement — easily, my child ! Well, 
now, my Henri, you are weak and sick, my poor little boy ; but 
listen to me — yes, I feel your little hands on my eyes. Well, bite 
upon that cord that goes across my throat. Bite till it snaps 
asunder. I am nearly choking, little one ; but don’t cry.” 

True : the strips of raw-hide, which had partially slackened in 
the rain that had washed the' body of the victim, now began to 
tighten again in the sultry heat of the morning, and lay half hidden 
in the swollen throat, stomach, and limbs of the tortured sufferer. 

Henri’s sharp little teeth fastened upon the strand, biting and 
gnawing, until finally it was severed, and the doctor gave a great 
sigh of relief. 

“ Blessings on you, my poor boy ! ” he murmured painfully. 
“ Now bite away on the strands which bind the arm. There ! 
Don’t, don’t hurry ! Rest a little, my child ! Ah ! it is well ! ” 

Again those sharp little teeth of a mouse had gnawed through 
the net which bound the lion-hearted man ; the ends of the raw- 
hide drew back and twisted into spiral curls, and the right arm, 
though numbed and four times its original size, was free. 

“ Thanks be to God for all his mercies ! ” exclaimed the doctor, 
as with difficulty he raised his released arm to his face and pushed 


THE HUBRICANE 


137 


back the swollen lids from his closed eyes — and to you, my little 
friend, for saving this wretched life ! ” 

Waiting a few moments to recover his strength, the doctor made 
a mighty effort, and some of the coils whose strands had been cut 
by those little teeth yielded and gradually unrove, so as to leave 
the upper part of his body free. Then, while the child was once 
more cutting the lashings of his feet, he himself unfastened the 
knots of his left arm, and by a vigorous effort he tore the net from 
off him, and sat upright. Clasping his numbed and swollen hands 
together, he turned his face and almost sightless eyes to heaven. 

“ May this awful trial serve as a partial forgiveness of my sins, 
and make me a better man ! ” 

He paused, and laid his heavy arms around the child, while warm 
and grateful tears trickled down his cheeks. Slowly, and like a 
drunken man, his feet sought the sand, and then, weak, trembling, 
and faint, he staggered along the path, the boy tripping lightly 
before him, till he fell exhausted on the floor of the chapel. 

Water, my Henri ! water ! ” 

The child scooped it out from the stone bowl with his tiny hands, 
and sprinkled it on his friend’s face. 

“ There, that will suffice, my brave boy. Lay your cheek to 
mine ! ” 

What a sight it was — that dark, swollen, yet powerful frame 
lying on the coral pavement, and the innocent child, like a dew- 
drop on a leaf of a red tropical flower, nestling close beside it ! 


CHAPTER XXVI 

THE HURRICANE 

“ ’Twas oil the Wash— the sun went down— the sea looked black and grim, 

For stormy clouds with murky fleece were mustering at the brim ; 

Titanic shades 1 enormous gloom 1 as if the solid night 
Of Erebus rose suddenly to seize upon the light ! 

It was a time for mariners to bear a wary eye, 

With such a dark conspiracy between the sea and sky 1 ” 

Past a September noon. The great canopy of dark, murky 
clouds fell lower and lower, until they nearly touched the earth, 
wrapping as in a blanket the single cocoa-nut-tree on the crag, and 
shutting out the light and air of heaven as they settled over the 
noxious lagoon, the mangrove thickets, and pure inlet. The sea- 


138 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


birds came screaming in from seaward, fluttering their widespread 
wings in the sultry atmosphere, and alighting on the smooth rocks, 
where they furled their pinions and put their heads together. The 
flying-fish no longer skimmed over the waves, and the dolphin and 
shark sunk deep down in the blue water, or la}^ still and quiet 
beside the coral groves. The rolling, swelling ocean of the tropic, 
with its glassy, greasy surface unruffled by the faintest air, rolled 
heavily on until it struck the coral ledge, when, with a dull, heavy 
roar, it broke over in creamy foam and came sluggishly in to the 
sandy beach. There the tiny waves lashed the shelly strand, and 
all was still again. No sun ; no breeze ; and even the birds and 
serpents and insects gasped for breath. The fish below the sea, the 
animated nature above, and the very leaves and vines of the forests 
and thickets knew what was brewing in the great vacuum around. 

Slowly and painfully the man in the chapel regained his feet, 
and, with the child by the hand, moved on to the farthest corner by 
the rude altar, where he sunk down again, and, clasping the boy to 
his heart, waited in breathless awe. As if the powder and flames 
had not done their destructive work, the wrath of Heaven was to be 
poured out over the devoted den of the pirates. 

Then came a bellowing roar as a current of wind swept over the 
sea, cutting a pathway in the blue water, and scooping it up in an 
impalpable mist, hurrying on to the low beach of the island, and 
tearing the sand and shells up in heaps — and then a lull. Now, as 
if all the demons of winds had let loose their cavernous lungs from 
the four quarters of the earth, and like the shocks of artillery, 
volley upon volley, came the hurricane. The sea became one boil- 
ing, seething, hissing surface of foam, pressed and flattened by the 
weight of the tempest, which laid the black rocks bare on the ledge, 
and drove the water into both mouths of the inlet, until, with a 
crashing shock, it met in the basin, and broke over and over the 
cove and high up the wall of rocks on the other side. Two or three 
streams of whirlwind meeting, too, over the island, drove the lagoon 
hither and thither, catching up the white pond-lilies by their long 
stems, twisting off the dense thickets of mangroves by the roots, 
burrowing holes in the sandy beds of the cactus, and shearing off 
their flat, thorny leaves and needle-points by the acre together ; 
then a rushing whirl around the cocoa-nuts, bowing their tufted 
tops at first till they nearly touched the earth, when, the stout 
trunks snapping like glass, they would go pitching and tossing 
from base to crown, careering and dancing aloft, borne away with 


THE VIRGIN MARY 


139 


sand and mangrove, cactus, flowers, and sticks, into the flying clouds 
before the hurricane. Then another lull ; and from the opposite 
direction again thundered the terrible breath of the demons, sweep- 
ing thousands of sea-birds, with broken pinions, screaming amid 
the gale, hurling them against the crag, stripping the feathers from 
their crushed carcasses, and in a moment burying them a foot deep 
in clouds of sand. No more pauses or lulls now in the hurtling 
tempest, but with a steady, tremendous roar, which made the earth 
tremble, the rocks quake, and laid every vestige of vegetation flat 
to the ground, it came on mightier and mightier, and fiercer and 
fiercer, with black masses of never-ending clouds sweeping close 
down like dark midnight, as if heaven and earth had come together. 
All through the gloomy day and through the night this elemental 
war, with its legions of careering demons, continued to lash the sea 
and smite the land, until, as if satiated with vengeance, the clouds 
belched forth in red lightning, vomiting out peal upon peal of awful 
thunder as a parting salute, and then, moderating down to a hard 
gale from another quarter, broke away. The blue sky appeared, 
and the glorious sun once more came up in his majesty over the 
distant hills of Cuba. 


CHAPTER XXVII 

THE VIRGIN MARY 

“ A weary weed, tossed to and fro, 

Drearily drenched in the ocean brine, 

Soaring high and sinking low, 

Lashed along without will of mine ; 

Sport of the spoom of the surging sea, 

Flung on the foam, afar and near, 

Mark my manifold mystery— 

Growth and grace in their place appear.” 

With the boy clasped to his heart, the doctor sat beside the 
altar of the chapel during all the direful strife without, shielding 
his little charge from the clouds of fine sand and rubbish that 
every few minutes came swirling within the temple, dashing the 
padre’s candlesticks into battered lumps of brass on the pavement, 
and tearing to atoms the votive offerings hung around the walls 
by the pirates. ' But, as if in mercy to the trustful souls lying there, 
the Virgin Mary still looked down in sweet pity upon them, and 
the little chapel stood unharmed. 


140 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


When at last, however, the hurricane’s back was broken, and 
uEolus had reined up Ins maddened chargers and curbed their 
flying wings, and when all the demons of the wind had gone mean- 
ingly back to their caverns in the clouds, the doctor arose, and, 
with the boy beside him, knelt devoutly before the altar while he 
uttered a fervent prayer of thanksgiving. 

“ Come, my Henri, now we may go out and see if we can find 
something to eat and drink. You are weak and hungry, my poor 
little boy ; but you shall not suffer much longer.” 

That strong man, with the heart of a gentle woman, had no~ 
thought of how ill and famished and thirsty he himself was from 
the terrible torture he had endured. No, he only thought of the 
child who had saved him. 

In front of the chapel the sand and bushes were piled up in 
ridgy heaps, the coral wall around the cemetery had been thrown 
down, while the flat head-stones over the pirates’ graves had dis- 
appeared entirely. Not so, however, with the white slabs near by 
where those poor doomed women were lying ; for the hurricane 
had spared their tombs, and a pall of pure white sand was sprinkled 
evenly over their remains. Bending over them was the trunk of 
the cocoa-nut, with its top stripped and its leafless branches quiver- 
ing in the wind ; while from below them streamed out the long, 
thin, green silk rope which had so often served Captain Brand, the 
pirate, for his private executions. Near at hand lay the trestle on 
which the doctor had been stretched, — caught by the base of the 
cocoa-nut column, and half buried in sand, — while the cruel strips 
of raw-hide which had lashed the victim down were tied and 
twisted into a maze of complicated knots by the nimble fingers of 
the winds. 

The doctor started, and his half-closed eyes shot out gleams of 
anger as he beheld the unconscious implements designed for his 
torturing murder ; and, leaving the child at the door- way to the 
chapel, he sallied out, detached the rope, loosened the trestle from 
its sandy bed, and placed them in a corner of the chapel. 

Then, carefully picking his way, with the boy in his great arms, 
over the trees and d'ehris which obstructed the pathway, he speedily 
reached the site on which had stood the sheds of the Centipedes 
crew. Fire, water, and wind had done their work effectually, 
though the fire had partially spared the detached store-house and 
shed which he had shared with the infamous padre. All else was 
a ruin of loose blocks of stone, broken tiles, nearly buried in banks 


THE VIEGIN MAEY 


141 


of sand. From a well in the once busy court-yard, and which had 
also escaped the devouring elements, the doctor drew a bucket or 
two of water, in which he slaked the boy’s thirst and then his own, 
and afterward poured water over their bodies. Then, from a still 
smouldering beam which puffed out at intervals a thin curl of 
smoke from beneath one of the sheds, he lit a fire in the court- 
yard, while from the wreck of the store-room he succeeded in res- 
cuing some hard biscuit and a ham. This last he tore in shreds, 
and, placing them on sticks before the fire, they were thus enabled 
to make a hearty meal, first providing for the wants of the child, 
however — soaking the biscuit for him, as if it were his first duty 
on earth. Again raising the boy in his arms, he passed from the 
ruined sheds and bent his steps toward Captain Brand’s former 
dwelling. The road was heaped with shells and sand, strewed 
with shoals of dead fish and wounded or dying birds, while the 
wreck of a boat, mingled with the timbers and planks of the jetty 
to the basin, were lying pell-mell on the beach of the little cove. 
Casting his eyes around in search of the once spacious dwelling, 
with its vaults, veranda, and saloon, he could hardly at first trace 
a vestige of the structure. The powder, more destructive even 
than the hurricane, had tossed walls and building into a confused 
heap of rubbish ; then came the wind and sand on top of the rocks 
which had tumbled down by the concussion of the first explosion, 
and then the water, packing all together as if no habitation had 
ever existed there. The doctor walked slowly around until he 
came to the angle where the kitchen once was, and there, three- 
fourths hidden beneath a mass of blackened stones and charred 
timber, peered forth the white skeleton of a human being. The 
flesh had been seared and burned from the face and skull by the 
instantaneous flash of the powder, and there lay the remains of 
Babette, whitely bleached, as if she had been thrown a lifeless 
corpse on the sea-beach. A few yards below this frightful specta- 
cle lay a number of shattered boxes and trunks, then a confused 
bundle of clothes, and a sandy, saturated collection of kitchen 
utensils and crockery. Yes, the poor dumb woman, the creature 
and witness of many a cruel scene, ignorant or uncertain of the 
warning given her by the master she loved, had fallen another 
tribute to his long list of victims. 

The doctor only waited long enough to select a few necessary arti- 
cles from the heterogeneous heap before him, and then, with the child 
still clinging contentedly to his shoulder, he returned to the chapel. 


142 


CAPTAIN BBAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE AEK THAT JACK BUILT 

“ Good Heaven, befriend that little boat, 

And guide her on her way ! 

A boat, they say, has canvas wings, 

But cannot fly away ; 

Though, like a merry singing-bird. 

She sits upon the spray.” 

The land-wind sighed -and murmured; the sea-breeze wafted its 
rustling influence over the waves ; the long swells broke over the 
ledge ; the inlet flowed pure and limpid, and the gulls and sea- 
mews floated gracefully over the reef, as if a hurricane had never 
poured its baneful wrath upon it or the lonely island. 

Day by day and week by week the man and boy, getting each 
liour stronger and better, worked and worked, he with his great 
arms hewing and sawing, and the child attending upon him like a 
shadow. By great toil and exertion the doctor had succeeded in 
placing some of the timbers of the jetty together as launching- 
ways, and on the cradle he had laid the wreck of the old boat. 
Then, with an old saw and some tools he found near the site of 
the mat sheds by the cove, he began to build the frail ark which 
was to carry him and the child from the hated island. From the 
store-house, too, he obtained plenty of provisions to supply their 
wants, and old sails and rope he found in abundance. Babette’s 
collection of worldly wealth provided them with linen and clothing, 
together with utensils for eating and drinking ; and he had made 
their dwelling in the little chapel clean and habitable. Here they 
slept by night on an old sail, and soundly, too, the sleep of repent- 
ance and innocence. With the early morning the man and the boy 
arose and took their way to the cove. The little fellow was clean 
and tidy now, dressed in a little loose calico frock, and a queer 
contrivance of an old bonnet fashioned out of Babette’s gear, and 
on his feet were a pair of little canvas slippers, stitched for him by 
his protector. After a bath in the basin of the inlet the fire was 
kindled, and the simple breakfast prepared. Then while the 
strong man hewed, and sawed, and hammered beneath a temporary 


THE ARK THAT JACK BUILT 


143 


awning which covered the open workshop, the boy would pick up 
shells along the cove, or with a little rod and line, seated on a flat 
rock near by, jerk out fish from the basin to serve for dinner. 
Sometimes he would wander about in search of nails and spikes for 
the boat, or gather sticks for the fire, but never out of hail, and 
never beyond the watchful eyes of his friend. Yes, those watch- 
ful, kind eyes followed his slightest movements ; and while the 
hammer was going in vigorous blows on the planks, or the axe 
chipping away a timber, his pleasant voice sung Creole songs to 
the child or encouraged his innocent prattle. A loaded musket, 
which, with some ammunition, he had dug out from the wreck of 
his old quarters, stood leaning against an upright post under the 
shade, and woe to the man or beast that might have dared to 
approach the boy ! In the burning heat of the tropical day the 
labor ceased, and the child either lay on his back on the soft sand 
beneath the awning, kicking up his little legs, watching the small 
gulls as they skimmed across the basin, or, with his brown curly 
head resting on the doctor’s knees, slept sweetly. Happy and con- 
tented he was, too, with the return of health and strength; and if 
his budding memory looked back to her he had lost, and the recol- 
lection of his faithful Banou, it was only for a moment, and, like a 
childish dream, it passed away. 

Every evening at sunset, when the work was done for the day, 
the doctor, with Henri in his arms and the musket on his shoulder, 
would climb the crag and peer all around the island ; but never a 
sail did he see from tliehour the Centipede spread her canvas, while 
he lay helplessly bound on the trestle with the green noose around 
his neck. As the twilight faded the sole human occupants of the 
island returned to the chapel, and when they had said a simple 
prayer, kneeling before the Virgin, they laid themselves down on 
their canvas bed to rest till the dawn. Many a silent hour in the 
watches of the tedious night did the doctor lie awake, while the 
cool, sweet breath of the child fanned his cheek as he lay nestling 
beside him, pondering and wondering on the fate of his charge 
He knew absolutely nothing about his history save that he had been 
pitched overboard from the brig the pirates were robbing ; but 
what was the name or nation of the vessel, where from, or whither 
bound, he was in utter ignorance. He had questioned the leader, 
Gibbs, on that occasion after the chase by the corvette, when he 
had -lopped off the brute’s leg ; but, what with suffering and drink, 
the ruffian had either forgotten the brig’s name or feigned to, and 


144 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


all he could impart was the belief that she was an English trader. 
Even from the boy, too, the doctor could elicit nothing of impor- 
tance, though day by day he tried every means of leading the child’s 
mind back to the past, but always with the same result. 

** Oui, ma chhre mama ! Bon Banou / ” and “ Ma petite cousine 
Rosalie! ” — these were the only words the little fellow had to link 
his fate with the future, and even they became fainter and fainter 
on his mind and tongue as the time passed on. With this delicate 
web around the destiny of the child, and that he spoke French, and 
liad evidently been tenderly nurtured, the doctor was forced to be 
content. 

Well, so the days and nights went by, and so the work went on, 
and the little ark began to assume a promising look, and to be capa- 
ble of ploughing the distant main. Then, when she was planked 
up, with a gunwale on, and half decked over forward, she was 
calked, and the seams paid with pitch. When all ready for launch- 
ing, early one morning the doctor and the boy went gayly down to 
the cove. There, as the first golden rays of the rising sun shot 
athwart the inlet, Henri stood up in the bows, and, with a large 
pearl-shell of pure spring-water, waved his tattered bonnet round 
his curly locks, and with childish delight, as the vessel began to 
move, he emptied the shell of its sparkling treasure, shouting as 
she slid off the ways into the basin : Ma petite cousine Rosalie!'^'* 
The builder, too, took off his hat and shouted, in his deep bass, 
till the rocks gave back the echo of “ Rosalie! Rosalie! ” 

Thus was the ark launched and christened by her captain and 
crew, and there she rode on the basin, a little pinnace of about ten 
tons, which had been once used to carry anchors, cables, and stores 
about the harbor. A week or two more, and she was fitted with a 
single mast, stepped well in the bows, for a jib and one square 
lug-sail. Then ballast in bags of sand was laid along her keelson, 
and a couple of breakers of fresh- water got on board, together 
with a quantity of cooked salt meat, and hard biscuit stowed 
away under the half-decked forward — where, too, was a cosey 
little nest of spare canvas with an oakum pillow for the boy. Yes, 
there lay the good ship Rosalie, outward bound, with sails bent 
and gear rove, cargo on board, and waiting for a wind. 

Meanwhile the doctor had tried her under sail, and satisfied 
himself that every thing worked well, and that she was in proper 
trim. Then he moored her within a fathom from the shore,* and 
waited for a moon to light him on his voyage. Whither ? 


THS AEK THAT JACK BUILT 


145 


Carefully, too, — like one who had passed a lifetime on the 
ocean, from the China Seas to the broad Atlantic, under the suns 
of the tropics as well as in the dim gloom of high latitudes, — the 
doctor studied the clouds and watched their course, noting the 
flight of the birds in the air and the track of fish in the sea. / At 
last the trade-breezes began to blow regularly and steadily; the 
land-winds, too, in the gray of the morning, fluttered timidly away 
out to sea, and the round, pearlj^ moon shone bright and mellow 
over rock and water. 

“ To-morrow, my brave boy, we shall sail away from the island. 
Ah ! you clap your hands, eh ? Yes, we shall go to find mamma.” 
This was said as man and child stood for the last time on the lofty 
crag, while the former ranged his dark eyes scrutinizingly around 
the horizon. Nothing in sight. 

Once more to their chapel of refuge, where, for the first time in 
all their association, putting the child to sleep by himself, the doc- 
tor sat down on the trestle by the entrance, and, lighted by the 
brilliant moon, caught up the tangled mazes of the hide net which 
had bound him, and sedulously applied himself to the task before 
him. 

Any one who has seen the effect produced by a violent gale upon " 
the tattered shreds of a shivered main-top-sail, bound up into the 
most tortuous knots that it is possible to conceive of, and so hard 
and solid that you might saw the canvas balls in slices like boards, 
may form some idea of the task the doctor had imposed upon him- 
self to loosen the hide strands tied together by the furious fingers 
of the hurricane.^ Patiently and quietly, with no sign of temper, 
he applied himself to the work, and, with nothing but a sharp- 
pointed spike to aid his hands, began to unravel, bit by bit, the 
laced knots and bunches of raw-hide, without ever cutting a 
strand, until, as the moon sunk glimmering down, the tangled 
mass lay in clear coils beside him, — though in several pieces, 
where it had been severed by the teeth of that little mouse pur- 
ring behind the altar, — and the task was done. Then, raising the 
trestle, he bore it within the altar, and with the now unravelled 
coil of hide and the softer silk rope for a pillow, he again stretched 
himself upon what once had been his bed of torture. 

For what possible object all this labor had been undertaken, or 
for what future purpose, — vague the}^ must have been, — no one but 
the persevering man who did it can tell ; and there he lay, no sound 
coming from his compressed lips till the day dawned. Then he 
10 


146 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


arose, and, kneeling over the sleeping child, again solemnly repeated 
the oath he had before taken in his hut : 

“ Sleeping or waking, on land or sea, I devote the remainder of 
my wretched life to returning this lost child to his mother. So 
help me God ! ” 

The little boy stirred, as if the angels and the sweet Virgin were 
whispering their protecting power over him, and, with a smile 
dawning upon his rosy, dimpled cheeks, he raised the lids from his 
bright hazel eyes, and put his fat, round arms around the doctor’s 
neck. If two great drops fell upon that upturned innocent little 
face from the dark, full eyes bending over him, they were not tears 
of sorrow. Oh, no ! It was the dew of hope and trustfulness 
falling from the soul of a repentant sinner relying upon an all- 
wise Providence. 

“ Come, my Henri, say your little prayer of the morning, and we 
will go.” The man had taught the child that little prayer which 
he himself had learned at his mother’s knee. 

Up again to the crag, and down to the shelly margin of the 
shore; and a long look the man gave at the ruin of shed and den 
as he gently placed the child on a sand-bag in the stern-sheets of 
the ark. Then he cast off the rope which held the vessel to the 
hated strand, hoisted the sail, and, as she bubbled along the inlet 
with the first sigh of the land-wind, he stood at the helm with his 
bare head lighted up by the beams of the rising sun, and his lips 
moved in prayer. 

On, noiselessl 3^, through the Tiger’s Trap sailed the little pinnace 
till she bowed her rugged cut-water in the yielding waves, and, 
with her square lug-sail swelling gently to the freshening breeze, 
held her course to sea. I question much if the stanch brigantine 
named the Centipede^ which had preceded her through this Tiger’s 
gorge, with all the ruffianly crew that manned her and their vil- 
lanous captain on her quarter-deck, stood half the chance of so 
prosperous a voyage as the tiny ark called the Rosalie, which fol- 
lowed, with her noble, brave commander, and his weak and boyish 
mate. Who can tell ? 


part SeconO 


CHAPTER XXIX 

LAYING UP THE STRANDS 

“ Ever drifting, drifting, drifting 
On the shifting 
Currents of the restless main, 

Till in sheltered coves and reaches 
Of sandy beaches 
All have found repose again.” 

It was in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twenty- 
two, and in the broad and commodious harbor of Kingston — a great 
merchantile liaven, crow’ded with shipping from all parts of the 
commercial globe ; land-locked by reef and ridge, with the rocks 
and heights crowned by frowning batteries of heavy cannon ; 
while beyond were spread the lower and upper town, in masses 
of low two-story buildings, with piazzas, bright green jalousies, 
stately palm-, tamarind-, and cocoa-nut-trees waving above them. 
At the mouth of the harbor strait, where stands Fort Augusta, lay 
a magnificent double-banked American frigate, with a broad blue 
swallow-tailed pennant at her main, standing out stiff like a dog- 
vane from the lofty mast, as the ship rode to the strong sea-breeze. 

The stays and rigging came down from trucks, cross-trees, and 
tops in straight black lines, from the great length of lower masts 
and enormously square yards fore and aft, and from side to side, 
till they met the long majestic hull and taper head-booms ; while 
below were two rows of ports, with the guns run out and the brass 
tompions gleaming in their muzzles. The awnings were spread in 
one flat, extended sheet of white cotton canvas from bowsprit to 
taffrail, and from the widespread lower booms at the fore-chains 
boats were riding by their painters. Within a cable’s length of 
the frigate’s black quarter lay a low, rakish schooner, like a 
minnow alongside a whale, with a thin little coach-whip stream- 
ing from her main-mast-head, a long brass gun amidships, and 
looking as trig and tidy as a French maid beside her portly 
mistress. 


147 


148 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


The bell struck in twin notes eight on board the frigate, echoed 
back from the pigmy schooner in a faint, double succession of 
tinkles ; the whistles resounded from deck to deck in ear-splitting 
notes, surging and chirruping all together, and then suddenly ceas- 
ing, with a rattling beat of a drum and a short bellow of “ Grog, 
ho !” 

Between the guns of the main-deck, and about the spar-deck 
battery forward of the main-mast, sat five hundred lusty sailors on 
the white decks around their mess-cloths, bolting hot pea-soup after*" 
their grog, and chatting and laughing in a devil-may-care sort of a 
strain, as if the grub was good and the timbers sound (as they 
were) of the stanch frigate beneath them. No noise, no con- 
fusion, but just as polite and courteous, *in their honest, seaman-like 
way, as half a legion of French dancing-masters, they whacked off 
the salt pork before them with their sheath-knives, munching the 
fiinty biscuit, and all as happy and careless of the past and future 
as clams at high-water. Ay, there they clustered, those five hun- 
dred sailors, in their snowy duck trousers and white, coarse linen 
frocks, with the blue collars laid square back over their broad 
shoulders, exposing their bronzed and hairy throats, wagging their 
jaws, and ready at any moment, at the tap of the drum, day or 
night, to spring to the guns and make the battery dance a jig as 
the solid iron food went amid sheets of flame toward a foe. Yes, 
and ready, too, in the gentle breeze or the howling tempest, to leap 
at the shrill pipe of the whistle from the busy deck or their snug 
hammocks, and, like so many monkeys, jump up the shrouds, lie out 
on the enormous yards while the frigate was plunging bows under 
in the tumultuous seas, grasp the writhing canvas in their sinewy 
paws, and wrap it up close and tight in the hempen gaskets. Man- 
of-war sailors, for battle, or gale, or spree, every one of them. 

On board that little consort near were about forty more of the 
same sort, only older, more bronzed, and more deliberate and 
methodical in manner, sipping their pea pottage after blowing 
away the steam, cutting their pork after much reflection, and crack- 
ing their biscuit tranquilly. Their conversation, too, was slow and 
dignified, each word well considered before it came out, and never 
interrupting one another in a yarn, as did the younger harum-scarum 
chaps in the big ship near. But yet those weather-beaten old sons 
of Neptune, who had each one of them seen sights that would make 
your hair stand on end to think of, could handle that schooner when 
her low deck was buried waist-deep to the combings of the main 


LAYING UP THE STRANDS 


149 


hatch in angry water, and make that long-torn amidships, there, 
spin round on its pivot, and never throw away idly one of its solid 
globular messengers. Ay, trust them for that ! 

Then honor to them all, those gallant tars who have fought the 
battles of our country by sea and lake, and upheld those Stars and 
Stripes until they are respected to the uttermost ends of the earth ! 
Glory to them, ye wise legislators, who sit in council upon the 
nation’s wealth and grandeur ! Think of the fearless arms that 
have shielded your otherwise unprotected shores Avhen circled in a 
ring of dreadful fire from the guns of a haughty foe. 

And you, too, ye rich traders, whose valuable cargoes roll hither 
and thither over the trackless deep, cared for by those toiling tars 
who fight and bleed for the flag that waves o’er your treasure, — in 
stinging gale, with frozen fingers, or under burning suns, with panting 
breasts, — think of them when your noble ships come gallantly into 
your superb ports, and unlade their floating mines of wealth into 
your spacious warehouses, while you in your lordly mansions sip 
your wine. Think of those arms grasping the shivering sail in the 
mighty tempest, in the black night, and the coarse fare they eat, 
the sometimes putrid water they drink, and the hard beds they lie 
upon, while you are reposing on downy pillows with your wives 
and little ones beside you. Ah ! take pity on the sailor and scatter 
your shining gold over him in his distress. 

When the time comes, as come it may, when the cannon of 
a hostile fleet are thundering at your ports, when your lumbering 
craft are flying before the rapacious grasp of quick-heeled cruisers, 
and fiery bombs are hissing through the pure air, bursting in your 
marble palaces and blasting your stores of wealth to dust, then you 
will turn with blanched faces to the sea, and wonder why you have 
so long forgotten the noble hearts and stalwart arms that once 
were thrown around you. But not before. 

On the flush quarter-deck of the frigate, by the raised signal- 
lockers abaft, stood a bronzed old quartermaster, a spy-glass rest- 
ing on his arm, through which every minute he peered around the 
harbor, giving an eye, too, occasionally to the half-hour glass, 
whose sands dribbled steadily into the lower bulb on the locker 
beside him. 

What cared he — no wife or child to cheer him ? No cares save 
but to see that the ensign did not roll foul of the halyards, that the 
broad pennant blew out straight, that the half-hour glass did not 
need turning, and that no boat approached the frigate without his 


150 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


reporting it to the officer of the watch. Naught else save, perhaps, 
whether the other old quartermaster, Charley Holmes, down below, 
there, on the gun-deck, had wiped from his lips the moisture of the 
mid-day grog, and would be up in time to take the relief while the 
pea-soup was warm. Nothing else. 

The lieutenant of the watch briskly paced the solid deck, ' 
scrubbed white as milk with lime-juice and molasses, the even 
seams between the planks glistening like the strands of a girl’s 
raven tresses as his profane and rapid feet pressed upon them. 
What thought he in his careless walk, with the gleaming bunch of 
bullion on his right shoulder, sword by his side, white trousers, and 
gilt eagle buttons on his navy-blue coat ? 

He was thinking how his pittance of pay would support, in 
a scrimpy way, his poor mother and sister, who looked unto him as 
their only hope and refuge. And he thought, too, as he tramped 
that noble deck, made glorious by man}^ a battle and victory in 
which he had borne a humble part, that his rich and powerful coun- 
try would eventually reward him with increased pay and promo- 
tion. Was the single dollar which lay alone in his trousers pocket, 
and the light mist which arose off there beyond the Apostles’ Bat- 
tery, opposite Port Royal Harbor, an evidence of one or a sign of 
the last aspiration ? We hope not ; but we shall see.* 

Three or four midshipmen, too, pranced over that frigate’s white 
quarter-deck, on. the port side, in their blue jackets and duck 
trousers. Little gay madcaps they were, scarcely well into their 
teens, with little glittering toasting-forks of dirks dangling at 
their sides, and ready for any lark or mischief. 

And what thought those boyish imps of reefers? Did they 
trace the flight of that tropic man-of-war bird, sailing high up in 
the heavens, heading seaward, away into the distant future, 
through clouds and sunshine, rain and storm ? And did they 
think, as they fluttered along the deck, that their own career 
might lead them in that direction, toward the star of promotion 
which shone so brightly near at hand, and was never reached ? or 
else, by a chance shot, to come tumbling down with a crippled 
pinion, and hobble out their lives on shore ? No. Those ga}" 
young blades, whose mothers were dreaming and sighing for them, 
had no reflections of that kind. They were chattering about the 
little frolic they had on their last liberty day, when the captain 
ordered them off to the frigate at sunset, and planning another 
* This was written before the “ Pay Bill ” was passed. 


LAYING UP THE STRANDS 


151 


for the week to come. Happy little scamps, let them dance their 
careless thoughts away ! 

“Two bells, sir,” said the quartermaster to the officer of the 
watch. 

“Very good. Young gentlemen, tell the boatswain to turn 
the hands to and have the barge manned. Let the first lieutenant 
and the marine officer know that the commodore is going to leave 
the ship. There, no larking on the quarter-deck, Mr. Mouse ! ” 

This last command was addressed to a tiny youngster who was 
hardly big enough to go without pantalets, much less to wear a 
jacket and order half a hundred huge sailors about, any one of 
whom was old enough to be his great-grandfather. But yet that 
small lad did it, and could steer a boat, too, or fly about like a 
ribbon in a high wind up there in the mizzen-top, while the men 
on the yard were taking the last reef in the top-sail. 

“ Go down to the cabin, sir, and let the commodore and his 
friend know the boat is ready.” 

Down the ladder skipped Mr. Mouse, and while he was gone the 
guard, in their white summer uniform and cross-belts, stood at 
ease, resting on their muskets on the quarter-deck, eight side-boys 
and the boatswain at the starboard gangway, with the first lieu- 
tenant and the officer of the watch standing near. 

Presently there came up from the after-cabin hatchway a fine,** 
handsome man, in the very prime of life, in cocked hat, full-dress 
coat, a pair of gleaming epaulets, sword by his hip, and his nether 
limbs cased in white knee-breeches, silk stockings, and pumps. 
The one who followed him was apparently a much older man, with 
grizzled locks, a dark, stern face, and without epaulets. The first 
raised his hat as he stepped on the quarter-deck, — not a thread of 
silver was seen in his dark hair, — and then both bowed to the offi- 
cers, who saluted them as they moved toward the gangway. The 
boatswain piped, the marines presented arms, the drum gave three 
quick rolls, and the commodore went over the gangway, preceded 
by his companion. 


152 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


CHAPTER XXX 

OLD FRIENDS 

“ What though when storms our bark assail 
The needle trembling veers, 

When night adds horror to the gale, 

And not a star appears ? 

True to the pole as I to thee, 

It faithful still will prove— 

An emblem dear of constancy, 

And of a sailor’s love.” 

The barge left the side of the frigate, a broad blue pennant with 
white stars on a staff at her bow, with fourteen handsome sailors 
to man her, all in clean white frocks and trousers, with straw hats 
and flowing black ribbons around them, on which was stamped in 
gold letters Monongahela. 

The double bank of white-ash oars flashed in the rippling waves 
of the harbor as the barge was urged over the water, the current 
seething and buzzing under her bows, and bubbling into her wake, 
as she flew on toward the town. In a mahogany box at the stern 
sat a bushy-whiskered coxswain, whose body swayed to the stroke 
of the oars, while his hand grasped the brass tiller as he steered 
amid the shipping. The commodore had settled himself down 
under the boat’s awning on the snow-white covered cushions in the 
stern-sheets, and, with one foot resting on the elegant ash grating 
beneath, he began to talk to the grave gentleman who sat opposite 
to him. 

“ It is many a long year since I last visited this superb harbor, 
but I remember it as if it were yesterday. You never were here 
before, I think ? No ? Well, if any of the old set I once knew, 
when I was first lieutenant of the old Scourge, are yet alive, we 
shall have a pleasant time. 

“ One fine fellow,” went on the commodore, ‘‘ I know is. His 
name is Piron. I had a note from him as soon as the frigate 
anchored yesterday, and I shall ask him to dine sociably with me 
on board this evening. I hope you will join us.” 

The grave gentleman said that he had business which would 
detain him on shore all night. 


OLD FRIENDS 


163 


The barge swept up to the mole, the oars were thrown up at a 
wave of the coxswain’s hand and came into the boat on either side 
like shutting up a pair of fans, while the boat-hooks checked lier 
way and she remained stationary at the steps of the landing. The 
awning was canted, the commodore and his friend got out and 
mounted the stairway, while the boat’s crew stood up, with their 
hats off. On the mole were four or five people in light West India 
rig of brown and white, and broad Guayaquil sombreros. 

“ Cleveland ! ” exclaimed a tall, handsome man, as he seized the 
commodore by both hands, “ how glad we are to see you ! Here is 
Tom Stewart, and Paddy Burns, and little Don Stingo, attorneys, 
factors, and sugar-boilers, all of us delighted to welcome you back 
once more to Jamaica ! ” 

Crowding about the commodore, shaking hands and slapping one 
another on the back, standing off a step or two to see the effect of 
time on each other’s appearance, laughing heartily, with many 
a happy allusion to days gone by, those old friends and former 
companions, unmindful of the hot sun, stood there with their faces 
lighted up and talking all together. 

‘‘ And you are a commodore, eh ? Cleveland, with a broad pen- 
nant and a squadron ? Ah, we have kept the run of you, though. 
Read all about that action you were in with the President^ and that 
bloody battle in the Essex and Phoebe at Valparaiso, Avith Porter. 
And here you are again, safe and sound, and hearty.” 

“ And you, too, Piron ! The same as ever ! Not tired of cane- 
planting yet? But how is madame?” 

‘‘ Lovely a girl as ever, Cleveland, but never entirely got over that 
sad loss of the little boy, you know. However, she will be over- 
joyed to see you. She’s been talking of you ever since we saw 
your appointment to the station fifteen months ago. Apropos, we 
have her widowed sister with us, whose husband was killed at 
Waterloo, and our little niece who came from France — all out there 
at the old place of Escondido, where you must come and pass a 
week with us. Nay, man, no excuse ! The thing is arranged, and 
it would be the death of Stingo, Tom Stewart, and Paddy Burns if 
you disappoint us.” 

“ Well, Piron, I am your man, but not for a day or two, until I 
have made some official calls here on the authorities. Meanwhile, 
gentlemen, you all dine with me this evening on board the frigate, 
every mother’s son of you. CoxsAvain, go on board and tell my 
steward to have dinner for six. Stop at the schooner as you go off. 


154 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


and say to Mr. Darcantel that I shall expect him to join us. Now, 
my friends, that matter is arranged, and we will all go off in the 
barge at sunset.” 

“ Dry talking, isn’t it. Stingo ? ” said Piron ; ‘‘ so, commodore, 
come, and we’ll have a sip of sangaree and a devilled biscuit to 
keep our mouths in order. But, halloa ! where is your friend, 
Cleveland — that tall man in black ? Parson or chaplain, eh ? ” 

“ No,” replied the officer ; ‘‘ an old friend of mine, my brother- 
in-law, who takes a cruise with me occasionally ; but he never goes 
into society, and has taken himself off, as he always does when we 
get in port. He is a glorious fellow, though, and I hope to present 
him to you yet. Never mind him now.” 

Arm-in-arm went the blue coat and bullion, locked in white 
grass sleeves, along the busy quays, crowded with mule -carts and 
drays for stores or shipping. Spanish dons, dapper Frenchmen, 
burly John Bulls, standing at warehouse and posadas, all with 
cigars in their teeth, which they puffed so lazily that the smoke 
scarcely found its way beyond the brims of their wide sombreros. 
Negroes, too, with scanty leg-gear, and still scantier gingham shirts, 
having bales, or boxes, or baskets of fruit on their heads, never 
any thing in their hands, chattering and laughing one with another 
as they danced and jostled along the busy mart ; then through the 
hot, sandy ruts of streets, pausing now and then to shake hands 
with some old acquaintance beneath the overhanging piazzas ; 
sedan-chairs moving about, with a negro in a glazed hat and red 
cockade at either end of the poles, in a long, easy trot, as they bore 
their burdens of Spanish matron, or English damsel, or maybe 
a portly old judge or gouty admiral, on a shopping or business 
excursion to the port ; so on to the upper town, where the dwell- 
ings stand in detachments by themselves, — singly or in pairs, — with 
spacious balconies and bright green Venetian blinds, all surrounded 
by gardens and vines ; with noble tamarind trees, and cocoa-nuts 
swaying their lofty trunks, and rattling their branches and leaves 
over the negro huts and offices below. Here the party stopped, 
and, entering a house, were ushered into a cool, lofty room, where 
there were a lot of mahogany desks, and a singy old clerk, who 
resembled a last year’s dried lemon, with some few drops of acid 
juice for blood, perched up on a hard stem of a high- stool, with four 
or five quill pens, like so many thorns, sticking out above his yellow 
leafy ears. 

All by myself here, Cleveland, as I told you. All my people 


OLD FRIENDS 


155 


are living out there at Escondido. Very little business doing just 
now, and Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart haven’t had a suit or a 
fight for the last six months. Inkstands dry, and my old clerk, 
Clinker, there, has forgotten how to write English. 

“However,” went on Piron, as the party threw themselves back 
on the wicker arm-chairs, and enjoyed the breeze which fluttered 
merrily through the blinds, “ the cellar isn’t quite dry yet ; and I 
say. Clinker, suppose you tell Nimble Jack or Ring Finger Rill to 
spread a little luncheon here, with a bottle or two of Bordeaux, or 
something of that sort.” 

The dried, fruity old gentleman dropped off his branch at the 
desk like a withered nut, and then, with a husky kind of shuffle, 
betook himself off. 

“ Queer old stick, that,” said the commodore, as he unbuckled his 
sword and laid it on the table. 

“Ah ! he grew here, and will blow away one of these days. My 
father used to tell me that he looked just the same when he first 
sprouted as he does now. But he is a dear, faithful old stump ; 
aud you must remember hearing, Cleveland, of that frightful earth- 
quake here in 1783, which killed so many people ? Yes ? Well, it 
was old Clinker who saved my sweet wife that is now and her 
sister ; though he was nearly squeezed — drier, if any thing, than he 
is now — in doing it. He lay, you know. Stingo, supporting the 
whole second story of the house for seven hours, pressed as fiat as 
a tamarind- leaf, while they were getting those twin babies out of 
their cradle. Yes, God bless him ! ” — starting up, while a flush of 
feeling darkened his face, — “but, what is more, he threw himself 
precisely where he did, as he saw the walls giving way, so that not 
a hair of those children should be injured when the beams came 
down. My father has told me since that, when they got a lever 
under the timber and wedged old Clinker out, he gave a kind of 
cackle ; but, in my opinion, he has not drawn a breath from that 
day to this. And, generally, he is a very taciturn old root and 
rarely opens his rind ; but latterly he talks a good deal about the 
earth(]^uake ; says he’s sure there ’ll be another awful one before an 
interval of forty years has passed, and wants us to go away. No 
objection, however, to coming back when the thing is over, and 
then waiting forty years for another. Don’t laugh, you Paddy 
Burns, for if ever the tremhlor gives you one little shake, you’ll 
jump higher than you did when that ugly Frenchman ran you 
through your waistcoat pocket, and you thought it was your midriff. 


156 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Now, Tom Stewart and Don Stingo, what are you grinning about? 
Your teeth will chatter so fast at the next quake that you won’t, 
either of you, be able to deliver a charge to the jury over a false 
invoice, or suck another drop of old Antigua rum.” 

“ But really, Piron,” broke in the commodore upon this voluble 
harangue, “ do you give heed to these barkings of that old 
clerk ? ” 

« Why, yes, Cleveland,” replied Piron, with rather a grave man- 
ner, “ I do ; and, moreover, my sweet wife, Rosalie, out yonder, who 
has never got over her grief for the loss of our boy, regards every 
word old Clinker says as so much prophecy ; and the upshot of the 
business is, I have made up my mind to leave the island.” 

“ For where, my friend — back to France ? ” 

“ No. Since the war and the peace, with Bonaparte at St. 
Helena, France is no place for an Englishman, even with a French 
father, and I am going to try America.” 

“ Truly, Piron, I am charmed to hear it. But what part of 
America ? ” 

‘‘ Why, I’ve bought a fine sugar estate at a bargain in Louisiana, 
and there w'e shall pass the remainder of our days.” 

“ He ! he ! ” sniggled Tom Stewart, while Don Stingo and 
Paddy Burns cackled incredulously ; but at the same moment 
Ring Finger Bill and Nimble Jack, two jet-black persons, in loose 
striped gingham shirts and bare feet, with an attempt at a grave 
expression of thick-lipped coffee-coolers, the whites of their eyes 
turned up with becoming decorum, and preceded by the old twig 
of a clerk, w^ho seemed to crackle in the sea-breeze as he again 
hung himself, stern on, to his stool of a trunk, entered the cool 
counting-house, bearing trays, fruits, and bottles, which they 
methodically arranged on the large table. 

“ Massa ! him want small, red, plump snapper, make mizzible 
brile?” said Nimble Jack. “S’pose Massa Ossif a him pick shell 
of land-crab, wid crisp pepper for salad ?” 

‘‘ No, no. Put those cool water-monkeys on the table and be 
gone. Come, Clinker, take a bite with us.” 

Leaving this pleasant party to sip their claret and water and 
nibble their mid-day food, while they rambled back to the past or 
schemed into the future, we will return to the frigate. 


THE COMMANDER OF THE “ROSALIE 


157 


CHAPTER XXXI 

THE COMMANDER OF THE “ ROSALIE ” 

“ The handsomest fellow, Heaven bless him 1 
Setting the girls all wild to possess him, 

With his dark mustache and his hazel eyes. 

And cigars in those pretty lips ” 

“ That girl who fain would choose a mate 
Should ne’er in fondness fail her, 

May thank her lucky stars if Pate 
Should splice her to a sailor.” * 

“ The Bosalie^s gig coming alongside, sir,” reported the quarter- 
master to the officer of the watch. 

“ Very well. A boatswain’s mate and two side-boys. Mr. Rat, 
have the barge manned, and send her on shore for the commodore. 
Mr. Martin, tell the boatswain to call all hands to furl awnings.” 

While these orders were being executed, the whistles ringing 
through the ship, the sailors lining the white hammocks, stowed 
in a double line, fore and aft, around the nettings of the frigate, in 
readiness to cast off the steps and lacings and let fall the awnings, 
the officer on deck stood near the gangway. At the same time 
there tripped up the accommodation ladder, lightly touching the 
snowy man-ropes, a young fellow of about one-and-twenty, dressed 
in undress frock-coat, one epaulet, smooth white trousers, and 
shoes. Catching up his sword in his left hand as he reached the 
upper grating of the ladder, be took off his blue, gold-banded cap, 
and half bounded with a springy step on to the frigate’s deck. 

Observe him well, young ladies, as he stands there ; for of all 
the scarlet or blue jackets on whose arm you have leaned and 
looked up at with your soft violet, blue, or dark eyes, you never 
saw a young fellow that you would sooner give those eyes, or 
those warm hearts, too, throbbing under your bodices, or who would 
drive you wilder to possess him, than that gallant young sailor 
standing on the Monongaheld^s deck. Ay, observe him well, that 
tall, graceful youth, with a waist you might span with one of your 
short, plump arms ; those slim patrician feet, that might wear your 
own little satin slippers ; then that swelling chest and those 


158 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


elegantly turned shoulders, which will take both of your arms, one 
of these days, to entwine and clasp around them ! Ah ! but the 
round throat and chin, the smiling mouth, half hiding a double 
row of even teeth, with the merest moonshine of a mustache dark- 
ening the short upper lip, and then those large, fearless hazel eyes, 
sparkling with health and fun, shaded by a mass of chestnut curls, 
which cluster about his clear, open forehead — ay, there he stands, 
“ a king and a kingdom ” for the girl who wins him ! 

“ Well, Harry, give us your fist, my boy ! How do you get on 
aboard your prize ? Not so roomy as the old frigate, eh ? And a 
little more work than when you were playing flag-lieutenant, eh ? 
Well, glad to see you, but can’t stop to talk. So jump down below, 
there, in the ward-room ; the mess are just through dinner, and 
yours won’t be ready for an hour yet. Come, bear a hand, or I’ll 
let these awnings fall on your new gold epaulet.” 

The new-comer tripped as lightly down the ladder to the gun- 
deck as Mr. Mouse, and, making another dive down to the berth- 
deck, exchanging a rapid volley of pleasantry with the midshipmen 
in the steerage, he opened the ward-room door and entered. There, 
in a large open space, transversely dividing the stern of the ship, 
with rows of latticed-doored state-rooms on either side, lighted by 
open skylights from above, with a barrel of a wind-sail coming down 
between the sashes, and every thing, from beams to bulkheads, 
painted a glistening white, and the deck so clean that you might 
have rubbed your handkerchief on it without leaving a stain on the 
cambric, around a large extension mahogany table stretching from 
side to side, the cloth removed, decanters and wine-glasses here and 
there, and water-monkeys in flannel jackets hanging like criminals 
from a gallows from the beams above, sat the ward-room mess of 
the frigate. 

“ By all that’s handsome, here’s Darcantel ! Why, Harry, we 
are delighted to see you ! ” exclaimed half a dozen voices. “ Come, 
sit down here and take a glass of wine with us.” 

As the handsome young fellow entered the ward-room all faces 
lighted up as they saw him. The old sailing-master, who seldom 
indulged in more than a scowl since he lost his right ear by the 
stroke of a cutlass in capturing the tender to the Plantagenet^ sev- 
enty-four, oif the Hills of Navesink; the rigid old major of marines, 
who pipe-clayed his very knuckles, and wore a stiff sheet-iron pad- 
ding to his stock to encourage discipline in the guard ; the dear, 
kind old surgeon, who swallowed calomel pills by the pint out of 


THE COMMANDER OF THE “ROSALIE 


159 


pure principle, and who lopped off limbs and felt yellow-fever 
pulses all through the still watches of the hot nights with never a 
sign or look of encouragement ; and the staid old chaplain, who 
had often assisted the surgeon and helped to fill cartridges, con- 
tributing his own cotton hose for the purpose when those govern- 
ment stores gave out in battle, and who never smiled, even when 
committing a marine to the briny deep ; the purser, too, prim and 
business-like, looking as if he were a complicated key, with an iron 
lock, of his own strong chest, calculating perpetually the amount 
of dollars deposited in his charge, the total of pay to be deducted 
therefrom, and never making a mistake save when he overcharged 
the dead men for chewing tobacco ; and the gay, young, roistering 
lieutenants, who never did any thing else but laugh, unmindful of 
navigation, pipe-clay, pills, parsons, or pursers, though standing 
somewhat in awe of the sharpish, exacting executive officer at the 
head of the table — all welcomed, each in his peculiar way, the 
bright, graceful young blade who dawned upon them. And not 
only the mess were cheered by his presence, but also a troop of 
clean-dressed sable attendants, whose wide jaws stretched wider, 
while the whites of their eyes seemed painfully like splashes of 
whitewash on the outside of the galley coppers, as they nudged 
one another and yaw-yaw’d quietly away aft, there, in the region of 
the pantry. 

“ Here, my salt-water pet, come and sit down by me, where all " 
those old fellows can see you. Steward, a wine-glass for Mr. Dar- 
cantel. What ! you won’t take a sip of tinto, and you can only 
stop a minute, because you are to dine with your uncle the commo- 
dore, eh ? Well, I’ll drink your uncle’s health even if you don’t,” 
said the first lieutenant, as he familiarly laid his hand on the young 
fellow’s shoulder and drained his glass. 

“ Why, Harry, what the deuce did you come down here for ? ” 
squeaked out the purser as he unscrewed his lips into a pleasant 
smile. “ You’ve put an end to that interesting account the master 
was giving us of how he lay inside Sandy Hook for six months 

with a glass to his ” 

Mouth,” broke in the surgeon. 

“ ‘ It was Sam Jones, the fisherman, 

Who was bound to Sandy Hook ; 

But first upon the almanac 
A solemn oath he took — 

That he would catch a load of clams ! ’ ' 


160 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“ Silence, there, you roarer ! ” said the surgeon, as he popped a 
filbert into the wide mouth of the rollicking fourth lieutenant, 
which cut his song short off. “ Yes, Harry, that’s what you have 
done in coming here for a minute. But stay a week with us, and 
the master will tell it you again. We’ve heard it once or twice 
before.” 

The old grizzled sea veteran scratched the remains of his ear, 
and growled jocosely while nodding to young Darcantel. 

‘‘Ah ! my dear boy, and I’ll tell you how the surgeon and nip- 
cheese, there, were entertained by a one-eyed old Spaniard at St. 
Jago.” 

“ Let’s hear it ! ” roared every-body except the medico and 
purser. “ Out with it, master ! ” 

“Well, messmates, when we were in the old Scour gCy 2i long 
time ago, one day we anchored in St. Jago de Cuba.” 

Here the surgeon and purser smiled horribly, and implored the 
grizzled old navigator not to go on ; every-body had heard that 
old story ; he might fall ill with the vomito pietro, and would 
require pills ; or else there might be found a mistake in his pay 
account, and he would like, perhaps, to draw for the imaginary 
balance not due to him, and to drink his grog and scratch the 
remains of his old ear, or turn his attention to the load of clams 
waiting for him at Sandy Hook ! But, for mercy’s sake, don’t 
repeat that silly, long-forgotten yarn ! 

“ Well, messmates, in less than an hour after we had anchored in 
St. Jago they went on shore and made the acquaintance of a little, 
thin, sharp old villain with one eye, who invited them to make him 
a visit, and pass the evening on a fine estate he owned near the 
base of the Copper Hills, some distance — about four leagues, I 
believe — from the town. He was a most respectable person, very 
rich, and commanded a Cuban guarda costa to boot. The capi- 
tano, Don Igna9io Sanchez — wasn’t that his name, doctor ? Oh ! 
you forget — all right. Off they started, with a guide, on hired 
mules ; but when they pulled up at their destination, they found 
the Don wasn’t there, though they were handsomely entertained by 
thesenora, — a comely, fat, and waspish body, with very few clothes 
on, — who cursed her Don for sending people to see her, and the 
visitors, too, for coming. However, as her guests had not dined, 
she fed them bountifully on a supper of the nastiest jerked beef 
and garlic they had ever smelled. You told me so, purser.” 

Both Pills and Purser had forgotten all about it, and thought it 


THE COMMANDER OP THE “ROSALIE 


161 


would be better to talk of something else ; that there was plenty of 
good wine to drink in place of drying his lips on such dusty old 
rubbish. 

“ Well, messmates, after the supper the old lady demanded a little 
game of monte, and she insisted, too, on making herself banker, 
though she had no money on the table to pay with in case she lost — 
which she had no intention of doing. So she won every ounce, dol- 
lar, real, and centavo they had in their pockets ! The doctor and 
purser told me they saw her cheat boldly ; but yet she not only 
bagged all the money, but she won their mules into the bargain ! ” 

Here those individuals confessed roundly — standing on the 
defensive — that the fat old senora had a false pack of cards always 
ready in her ample bosom, and had cheated them in the barest 
manner conceivable ; but yet they had no appeal, and were 
inclined, out of gallantry for the sex, to behave like gentlemen, 
though she did drink aguardiente. 

“Well, messmates, toward midnight that hospitable wife of the 
Don began to abuse our friends for not bringing more cash with 
them when they visited ladies, and then fairly kicked them out 
of the house ! Yes, you both told me so when I lent you the 
money to pay the boatman, after being obliged to tramp all the 
way back to the port on foot, nearly missing their billets in the old 
Scourge."^"* 

“ Go on, master ! Tell us all about it ; don’t stop ! ” 

“Well, messmates, I was on deck while beating out of the chan- 
nel, and just abreast the Star Castle I saw a boat with two gentle- 
men in the stern, stripped to a girt-line, and howling at rather than 
hailing the ship. Bear in mind, doctor, the men refused to take 
either of you unless you gave them your coats and trousers before 
shoving off. And don’t you remember. Hardy, how they yelled at 
us, and we thought they were deserters from that English gun-boat 
in St. Jago ? And how the captain arrested the pair of them when 
they got on board for going out of signal distance ? This is the 
first time I ever told this yarn,” concluded the old navigator, tug- 
ging away at the lobe of his lost ear. 

The 3"Oung lieutenants shouted, and the old major of marines, 
forgetful of his iron-stuffed stock, laughed till he nearly sawed his 
chin off, rubbing his chalky knuckles into his eyes the while. 

“ ‘But first upon the almanac 
A solemn oath he took — 

That he would catch a load of clams ’ ” 


11 


162 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 


The barge is coming off, Mr. Hardy, with the pennant flying, 
sir,” reported a reefer, in the midst of the conversation, to tlie first 
lieutenant, as he shoved his bright face through the ward-room 
door. 

“Very good, Mr. Beaver ; but hark ye, sir ! the next time you 
go ashore in the market-boat look sharp that the men don’t suck 
the monkej^ Three of them came off drunk this morning. And 
inform Mr. Rat and Mr. Mouse that if I see their heels on the 
cutter’s cushions again. I’ll take a better look at them from the 
main-top-mast cross-trees. You understand, sir ? Steward, a glass 
of wine for Mr. Beaver ! ” Saying this, the executive officer, with 
Harry Darcantel, arose and went on deck to receive the commodore. 

/ 


CHAPTER XXXII 

A SPLICE PARTED 

“ Oh, for thy voice, that happy voice. 

To breathe its loving welcome now 1 
Fame, wealth, and all that bids rejoice, 

To me are vain I For where art thou ? 

“ What is glory— what is fame ? 

That a shadow — this a name. 

Restless mortal to deceive. 

Are they renown’d— can they be great, 

W ho hurl their fellow-creatures’ fate. 

That mothers, children, wives may grieve ? ” 

The drum rolled, the marines presented arms, the boatswain 
piped, the side-boys and officers took off their caps ; and as the 
colors dropped with the last ray of sunset from the peak, and the 
broad blue day-pennant came fluttering down from the lofty main- 
truck, Commodore Cleveland and his friends stood on the splendid 
deck of the flag-ship Monongohela. 

It must have been with conscious pride that the brave and loyal 
commander gazed around him on the noble frigate and her gallant 
crew — the white decks ; the tiers of cannon polished like varnished 
leather, with the breechings and tackles laid fair and even over and 
around them ; the bright belaying-pins, holding their never-ending 
coils of running gear ; the burnished brass capstan ; the great 
boom ; the frigate’s boats amidships, with a gleaming star of 
cutlasses reflecting a glitter on the ring of long pikes stuck around 
the main-mast near, all enclosed by the high and solid bulwarks ; 


A SPLICE PARTED 


163 


while towering above, like mighty, leafless columns of forest pines, 
stood the lofty masts, running up almost out of sight to the trucks 
in the fading light, supported by stays and shrouds, singly and in 
pairs, and braided mazes, — black, and straight, and taut — never a 
thread loose on rigging or ratline, — and spreading out as they 
come down in a heavy hempen net, till they disappeared over the 
rail, and were clinched and spliced, or seized and clamped to the 
bolts and dead-eyes of the chain-plates outside. Holding up, too, 
in mid-heaven, on those giant trunks, — like a child its toys, — the 
great square yards of timber branches, lajdng without a quiver, in 
their black lifts and trusses, with their white leaves of sails 
crumpled and packed in smooth bunts in the middle, and running 
away to nothing on either hand at the tapering yard-arms. 

Grand and imposing is the sight. And well may you wonder, ye 
land-lubbers, why all that mass of timber, sails, and cordage, with 
its enormous weight, does not crush with the giant heels of the 
masts through the bottom of the ship like unto an egg-shell, and 
tear the stanch live-oak frame to splinters ! 

The commander of the frigate saw all this, and he beheld at the 
same time the clusters of happy sailors sauntering, with light step 
and pleasant faces, up and down the waist and gangways ; and he 
heard, too, the scraping of a fiddle on the forecastle, the shufiling, 
dancing feet, and the least notion of a jovial sea-song coming up 
from the gun-deck. Yes, it must have been a glorious pride with 
which that gallant officer gazed around him from the quarter-deck 
of the magnificent frigate. 

Did he say to himself : “ I am monarch of this floating kingdom ; 
my will is law ; I say but the word, and those sails are spread and 
the ship moves to wherever I command. My subjects, too, who 
watch my slightest look and whisper, with that flag above, will 
pour broadside upon broadside, — ay, they have, — from those terrible 
guns upon whoever dares to cross my track. Yes. They will fight 
for me so long as there is a plank left in this huge ship to stand 
upon, and while there is a rope-yarn left to hold the ensign— ay, 
even until my pennant, nailed to the truck, sinks beneath the blood- 
stained waves ’’—did the commander think of all this? Perhaps 
he did. 

And yet, in all the pride of rank and power, bravely won and 
maintained in many a scene of strife and deadly conflict, with 
visions of honest patriotism and ambition for the future, did his 
thoughts go back long years ago into the shadowy past, and was 


164 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


his spirit in the silent churchyard, where the magnolia was droop- 
ing over a grass-green grave ? The sweet mother and her baby 
boy, — the girl who had so fondly loved him, and the child who 
played about his knees, — oh, that they could have lived to share the 
wreaths of victory which were hung around his brow ! that they 
could have lived to see the sword his country gave him, to twine 
but for one little moment their loving arms around his neck ! No, 
the magnolia waves its white flowers over mother and boy, and 
they sleep on in their heavenly and eternal rest. 

Did Commodore Cleveland, as a saddened flash of thought swept 
over his handsome face while he stood on his quarter-deck, dwell 
on those scenes ? Yes, we know he did. By day and night, in 
war and peace, in gale or calm, on deck or at banquet, in dream 
and action, the girl and mother he so dearly loved was close clasped 
to his heart, and the child still playing at his knee. 

“ Gentlemen, let me make you acquainted with the flrst lieuten- 
ant, Mr. Hardy ; and permit me also to present my nephew, Mr. 
Darcantel, captain, if you please, my friends, of the one-gun 
schooner Rosalie, formerly the slaver Perdita, cut out of a river on 
the Gold Coast by the young gentleman who stands before you.” 

“Rosalie ! why, that’s the name of my niece! ” exclaimed Piron; 
“ and she is prettier and whiter than your trim little craft, sir. 
But you must come with the commodore to Escondido and judge 
for yourself. But, bless my soul ! you resemble our Rosalie, even 
if your schooner don’t. Why, look at him, Paddy Burns ! ” 

Don Stingo, and Tom Stewart, and the Paddy did look at him, 
and all shook hands with him, laughing the while at Piron, and 
asking when old Clinker looked for another earthquake. 

“ Come, Piron, come, gentlemen, don’t let us keep the soup 
waiting. By the way, Mr. Hardy, will you do me the favor to 
take a glass of wine with us after gun-flre ? ” 

“ Thank you.” 

“ Suppose you bring little Mouse with you ? I like children ; 
and perhaps you will excuse the younker from keeping his ’watch 
to-night. A little extra sleep in hammock won’t hurt him, you 
know.” 

And so Commodore Cleveland raised his hat, followed by the 
eyes of respect and devotion from officer and sailor, as he passed 
down the ladder and entered his spacious cabin. 


THE BLUE PENNANT IN THE CABIN 


165 


CHAPTER XXXIII 

A 

THE BLUE PENNANT IN THE CABIN 

“ To Bachelors’ Hall we good fellows invite 
To partake of the chase that makes up our delight.” 

“ Ask smiling Honor to proclaim 
W hat is glory, what is fame. 

Hark 1 the glad mandate strikes the list’nin'g ear : 

‘ The truest glory to the bosom dear 

Is when the soul starts soft compassion’s tear.’ ” 

“ Now, gentlemen, let me get off this heavy coat and epaulets. 
There ! all right, Domino ! put the sword in its case, and give 
me a white jacket. Choose your own places, my friends. Piron, 
sit here on my right ; Henri, take the foot of the table.” 

These last words were said in Frencli ; whereupon Piron started 
and whispered to the commodore : “ By George ! Cleveland, is that 
youth’s name Henri, and does he speak French ? ” 

‘‘Hush, Piron, he may hear you. His mother was French, and 
he speaks the language like a native. She died when he w'as a 
baby, and he doesn’t like to allude to it. Come, steward, we are 
all ready. Serve the gumbo.” 

The cabin of the frigate was divided by a light lattice-work 
bulkhead into two parts, running from quarter to quarter of the 
vessel. The after part had a large sleeping state-room on either 
side, resting on the quarter galleries, and opening on to another 
gallery which hung over the stern of the frigate. Inside, in the 
open space, were a round table, cushioned lounges, a few chairs, 
with a bronze lamp pendent from a beam above, while taking the 
curve of the stern over the after-windows was a range of book- 
cases, half hidden by the gilt cornice and curtains of the windows. 
The entire fittings and furniture of cabin and state-rooms, includ- 
ing the neat Brussels carpet on the deck, were elegant and useful, 
though by no means luxurious. The forward cabin, where no 
carpet graced the floor, was much more spacious. It took in the 
two after-ports of the gun-deck ; and the carriages and cannon 
within the sills of the ports were painted a marble white, as w^ere 
the ropes, in covered canvas, that held them. In a recess forward 


166 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


was a large mahogany sideboard, or buffet, the top fitted with a 
framework for glasses and decanters, which were reflected from a 
large mirror let into the bulkhead. In the middle of this space 
was the dining-table, lighted by a pair of globe lamps hanging 
from above, while neat racks for bottles and water-jugs, moving on 
sliding brass rods, were also suspended from the panelled beams 
and carlines of the upper deck ceiling. On the right — the star- 
board side — was a door leading into a roomy pantry, where the 
steward and Domino and the servants of the commodore bestirred 
themselves at dinner-time. 

“ So, my friends,” exclaimed the commodore, “ you wish to hear 
what became of me after I last parted with you? ” 

“ By all means, Cleveland ; we are all dying to hear, and ” 

Here Piron’s appeal was interrupted by the heavy report of a bow 
gun, which gave a slight though almost imperceptible jar to the 
frigate. 

“Smithereens! Stingo, what noise is that?” exclaimed Burns. 

“ Only the nine-o’clock gun, sir,” replied Darcantel. 

“ Hech, mon ! ” said Stewart, “ ye needna upset ma glass of 
auld Madeira in yer mickle fright, for I’ve seen the time when ye 
ha’ laughed at the music in the report of a peestol and the ping of 
a bullet. But your nervous seestem seems to be unstrung ever 
since the sma’ French dancing count untied the string o’ your 
waistcoat with his rapeer,” 

“ You don’t think, Paddy, the commodore, here, is going to bang 
a forty-two-pound shot into our stomachs after all the good grog 
he’s filled them with ? ” added Stingo, sotto voce, while the rotund 
Milesian threw his head back and twinkled careless defiance at 
them all. 

Just then the orderlj'- swung the port-cabin door open, and, stand- 
ing up as rigid as a pump-bolt, with a finger to the visor of his 
stove-pipe hat, in cross-belts and bayonet, he announced: “Lieuten- 
ant Hard}^ and Midshipman Mouse.” 

“ Ah ! Hardy, glad to see you ! ” rising as he spoke ; “ squeeze 
in there between Stewart and Burns or Darcantel. Here, gentle- 
men, let me exhibit to you Mr. Tiny Mouse ! Don’t move, Piron ; 
I’ll make a place for him near me.” 

Saying this, the commodore took the lad affectionately by the 
hand, and as he sat him down on a chair at his elbow, and while 
the conversation went on with his guests, he said, in a kindly tone : 
“ Tiny, my dear, the first lieutenant tells me you are a good boy, 


THE DEVIL TO PAY 


167 


and attend to your duty. I hope you pay attention to your studies 
also, and write often to your dear mother. Ah ! you do ? That 
is right; for you know you are her only hope since your brave 
father was killed. There, sir, you may swig a little claret, but 
don’t touch those cigars.” 

“ Come, Cleveland ! Cleveland ! you are forgetting your ad- 
ventures, my boy.” 

“ Well, my friends, you shall hear them.” 


CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE DEVIL TO PAY 

“ And how, then, was the Devil dressed ? 

Oh, he was dressed in his Sunday’s best ; 

His jacket was red and his breeches were blue. 

And there was a hole where the tail came through.” 

“ Hairy-faced Dick understands his trade— 

He stands by the breech of a short carronade, 

The linstock glows in his bony hand. 

Waiting that grim old skipper’s command.” 

‘‘ The last dinner I had in Jamaica — and a very jolly one it was, 
as you all know — was out at Escondido, where we kept it up so late 
that I only got on board the Scourge at daylight, in time to get her 
under way with the land-wind. Well, we were bound to windward, 
and for a week afterward we rolled about in a calm off Morant Bay, 
maybe twenty leagues off the island, until one morning we dis- 
covered a sail. . She was a large merchant brig, heading any way, 
and bobbing about, as we were, in the calm. Toward noon, how- 
ever, a light air sprung up, and we got within hail, and I went on 
board to say a word or two to the skipper, for we had news before 
leaving Kingston that that infamous pirate Brand, in his long- 
legged schooner Centipede, had been seen off Guadaloupe ; and, in 
fact, we had actually chased him off Matanzas three months before ; 
so I was ordered to give the brig a warning, particularly as she had 
reported a suspicious craft in sight that same morning at sunrise. 
When I got on board of her, I saw ” 

Here Piron placed both hands to his face as he leaned his 
elbows on the table, and the commodore, checking himself, hurried 
on: 

“ Ah ! well, we kept the brig in sight all day, and ran round her 
once or twice in the evening, but toward midnight the trade-wind 


168 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


freshened and, as the coast seemed clear, and we were anxious to 
make up for lost time in the calm, we gradually came up to our 
course and went bowling away to windward. 

“ I remember going below at the time, and just as I was about to 
turn in I heard a quartermaster sing out to Hardy, there, who was 
junior lieutenant of the ship, and who had the middle watch, that 
he saw a light going up to the brig’s gaff. In five seconds I was 
on the poop, where I met the captain. 

“ This is his only son, gentlemen, and a braver or more skilful 
seaman never trod a ship’s deck,” said the commodore, as he passed 
his hand affectionately over the boy’s head, who was sitting beside 
him. 

But he forgot, perhaps, to say that he, Cleveland, had stood by 
the father when he was struck dead by a cannon-shot, and that 
afterward he had the boy appointed a reefer, and, out of his own 
means, helped the widow to eke out her pittance of a pension. 
Yes, Cleveland forgot all that as he smoothed the j^oungster’s soft 
hair, while, with the men around him, he drained his glass in 
silence to the memory of his departed friend and chief. Then, 
resuming, he went on : 

“ In less than no time after the light was seen, — for you must 
know, gentlemen, that it was an understood signal between us, — 
the Scourge was flying off with a stiff breeze abaft the beam, the 
crew at quarters, and the boats ready to be lowered from the davits. 
When we ranged up alongside the brig, and even before, we felt 
certain that our misgivings would prove true, and so they did ; 
and, merely slamming a shot over her, and dropping a couple of 
armed boats into the water, we luffed round her bows, and there 
we saw that cursed schooner, — venomous snake as she was, — just 
hoisting her sails and creeping away to windward. 

“We let her have two or three divisions of grape, and followed 
the dose up with round shot. I am sure we hit her, and that pretty 
hard, for we knocked away her fore-top-mast, and we saw the 
splinters fly in showers from her hull. However, she was well 
handled, and, lying nearer the wind than the Scourge, when day 
dawned she was clear out of range, and leaving us every minute. 
So we up helm and ran down again to the brig to see what mischief 
had been done and to pick up our boats. 

“Ah ! yes, you all know what had taken place, so I won’t go 
over the details ; but the same afternoon, after seeing the brig 
pointed straight for Port Royal, and while we were once more on 


THE DEVIL TO PAY 


169 


our course, we fell in with a water-logged boat, in which were half 
a dozen dead and dying men. One, a mongrel Indian from Yuca- 
tan, who was frightfully torn by two or three grape-shot, before he 
died on board, — as did all the others, — gave us, in his confused dia- 
lect, some account of the pirate he had served under and the haunt 
he frequented. As near as we could learn, the haunt was situated 
somewhere on the south side of Cuba, on a rocky island, having a 
safe and secure inlet ; but, as he did not know the latitude or longi- 
tude, we were left somewhat in the dark. The last words, however, 
the mangled wretch uttered, as the gasping breath was leaving his 
body, were that the spot could be distinguished by a tall cocoa-nut- 
tree which grew on a craggy eminence in the middle of the island. 
We buried them all, pirates as they were, decently, and then 
clapped on all sail on our course. 

“ Steward, another bottle of the old Southside that Mr. March 
sent me from Madeira. Here, Domino, take Mr. Mouse up gently 
and lay him down on my cot in the after-cabin. Dear little fellow, 
he is sound asleep; and mind you draw the curtains around him, 
lest he take cold from the draught of the stern windows.” 

Rather a striking contrast this to the way Captain Brand, the 
pirate, treated the little Henri in the den there in the Do9e 
Leguas. 

“ Well, gentlemen, for some weeks after these occurrences we 
sailed about the islands, touching here and there, until at last we 
arrived at the Havana, took in stores and water, and then continued 
the cruise. The orders were to beat up the south side of Cuba, 
where we expected to fall in with the Mosquito fleet and some 
English vessels, especially detailed to destroy two or three nests of 
pirates who had for some years swarmed in those seas and infested 
that coast. In the course of time we beat all around the south 
side of Cuba, and at last dropped anchor in St. Jago, where we 
learned from the English consular agent that five or six fellows, 
who had been wrecked on the Carvalo Reef, were identified as hav- 
ing been part of a piratical crew who liad plundered an English 
vessel with a free passport bound to Havana, and had been sent 
there in irons for trial. 

“ The truth was that tlie Spanish colonial authorities had so long 
connived, winked at, or been indifferent to what was going on dur- 
ing the wars of the Continent that they allowed these piratical 
hordes to exist and thrive at their veiy doors. The matter had 
already been brought to the notice of the administrador of the port. 


170 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


and all other ports as far along the coast as Cienfuegos, and in 
such a threatening manner, too, that the Governor at St. Jago, fear- 
ful of having his town blown down, exerted himself in the arrest 
of the rascals I have alluded to, and likewise in procuring informa- 
tion, by despatching guarda costas along the south side of the 
island. 

“ Accordingly, the very morning we anchored I went ashore with 
the captain of the custom-house, where we met the deputy admin- 
istrador and a little withered, one-eyed old rascal, who was in the 
colonial service, and who professed to know the haunt, or at least 
he said he thought he did, of that notorious villain Brand. 

“ I remember distinctly spreading a chart before him ; and 
while he traced with the end of his cigarette a course for the cap- 
tain to steer by, I stood near, watching him narrowly. But the 
fact was that he had the very sharpest spark of an eye set, or 
rather standing out, beside his nose that any body ever saw in a 
human being’s head ; and instead of me watching him he seemed 
to be looking straight through me and divining my thoughts and 
suspicions. However, the spot he pointed out, and the way 
he described it, with a cocoa-nut-tree on top of a rock, and the 
passage through the reef, so nearly corresponded with the confused 
account the Yucatanese gave us before he died that the captain 
was entirely convinced we were on the scent, though I myself was 
not more than half satisfied. The place indicated was near the 
Isle of Pines, three hundred miles off ; but, to make the thing 
more plausible, that one-eyed old scoundrel was detailed to run 
along the Do9e Leguas Cays, see what information he could pick 
up there, and then follow down after us. 

“ That night, or early the next morning, we were off again, 
and ran down the coast, with a good offing, to keep the wind, 
until we got to the ground, and passed in by Cape St. Francis, and 
doubled round into the Bight of Pines. There we fell in with a 
whole fleet of English and American cruisers and schooner craft, 
who informed us that they had searched every accessible spot 
where a man could walk dry-shod upon, from Guayabos to the 
Isle of Mangles ; that they had destroyed several old and deserted 
piratical nests, and hung two or three ostensible fishermen by way 
of wholesome warning to their allies the pirates; but that was all; 
and from what they had learned there did not seem to have been 
an established retreat in that maze of cays and reefs for four or 
five years. 


THE DEVIL TO PAY 


171 


“So, you see, we had our cruise for nothing, and then the captain 
agreed with me that we had both been most egregiously deceived 
by the Spanish commander of the guarda costa. Well, we hauled 
our wind once more, standing well out to sea, and after a tedious 
beat of some days we again edged in toward the coast, somewhere 
near the Boca Grande of the Twelve League Cays, on the western- 
most side. It was in the morning when we made the land, and, 
steering close in, we got a good slant oif the shore, and kept the 
glasses going from the top-mast cross-trees down all through the 
day. For my part, as Hardy may perhaps remember, I scarcely 
took the glass from my eye for eight hours, and from the mizzen- 
top I feel quite sure that there were not many objects, from the 
size of a blade of grass to a mangrove bush, that I did not exam- 
ine, from the coral reefs up to the rocky heights, let alone the 
cocoa-nut- tree that we were in search oL 

“ Toward afternoon, however, the weather came up hazy, the 
wind began to fall off, and the barometer began to exhibit very 
queer spasms indeed, rising with a sort of jerk at first, and then 
dropping down the tenth of an inch at a clip, with the atmosphere 
becoming close and sultry, and the men gasping about the decks as 
if we were about to choke at the next breath. It was during the 
hurricane months, and the indications certainly should have led us 
as far as our legs could carry us to open water, instead of being 
caught embayed, perhaps, with half a thousand reefs around us on 
what might prove a lee-shore ; but, nevertheless, the captain decided 
to hold on till sunset, and then make an offing. The breeze still 
held in the upper sails, and so we slipped on in smooth water till 
about five o’clock, when I heard a fellow sing out from the main- 
royal yard. 

“ ‘ On deck, there ! I can see a tall cocoa-nut-tree on an island 
here on the port bow ! ’ 

“ Before the words were well out of his mouth I, too, caught the 
object, and I knew at the first glance that it was the spot we were 
looking for. At the same time the haze lighted up a bit, and we 
saw the ridge of rocks and every thing as the haunt of that pirate 
Brand had been described to us. So, my friends, we were all alive 
once more on board the Scourge, and the captain resolved to dash 
in upon the scoundrel’s nest before he could have time to leave it. 

“ The engine was rigged and water spirted over the sails from 
the trucks down, to make the canvas hold the wind, and in an 
hour after we were within two leagues of the island, and just as 


172 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


the sun fell below the horizon we caught sight of the mast-heads 
of a large vessel sticking up over some bluff rocks near the bold 
shore. Not five minutes later the hull of the craft came slowly 
out from the gap, under all sail, and we discovered her to be a 
long and rather lumbering-looking brigantine, painted lead-color, 
and bearing no resemblance to the schooner we had twice chased 
before. Simultaneously, however, with her coming out into full 
view, as she rounded in her head-yards and got a pull of the main- 
sheet, with the breeze abeam, and heading to the eastward, we 
beheld a great volume of white smoke spout up over the rock near 
the cocoa-nut-tree, with a livid sheet of flame at the base, and 
before the vast column turned, like the crown of a palm-tree, in its 
descent we were greeted by a dull, heavy roar, the concussion of 
which fairly made the Scourge tremble. Then, as the white smoke 
partially broke away, an* avalanche of rocks and timbers was 
scattered far and near, and nothing visible but a veil of dust and 
masses of heavy smoke. Nearly at the same moment of this 
explosion wreaths of heavy black smoke arose from another spot 
nearer to the gap, lit up in the fading, hazy twilight with forked 
red fires, and soon after a great conflagration burst forth, swirling 
flakes of burning cinders all over the island, and casting a lurid 
glare upon the water around us.” 


CHAPTER XXXV 

AND THE PITCH HOT 


“ He is born for all weathers : 

Let the winds blow high or blow low. 

His duty keeps him to his tethers, 

And where the gale drives he must go.” 

“ The wind blew hard, the sea ran high, 

The dingy scud drove ’cross the sky ; 

All was safe lashed, the bowl was slung, 

When careless thus Ned Halyard sung.” 

Said the commodore, with a knowing shake of his head : “Ah ! 
gentlemen, if the fellow, whoever he was, who was creeping away 
so nimbly in that lazy-looking brigantine, with English colors at the 
peak, had written down in detail what he had been doing on that 
secluded nook of an island, and sent the information off to us in a 
letter, we could have read it without breaking the seal. We could 
have told him that that little scoundrel with one eye had purposely 


AND THE PrrCH HOT 


173 


misled us, and had given him warning to quit his stronghold; and 
that he had hastily got his plunder and people on board his vessel, 
blown up and set fire to his nest, and that the brigantine he was 
now on board of was once upon a time the notorious schooner 
Centipede. Yes, we knew all that by instinct.” 

Piron sat with his eyes fixed upon the speaker, taking in every 
word as it fell from his lips, the teeth set close together and the 
hand clinched which supported his head on the table. Paddy Burns 
and Tom Stewart, too, looked eagerly that way, as did Harry Dar- 
cantel, while Hardy sipped his wine and puffed his cigar leisurely, 
as if he knew the tale by heart. 

“ It had fallen nearly calm. A light air, perhaps, in the royals, 
though nothing down below. But as we hauled down our colors at 
sunset, which had been hoisted to let the fellow know who we 
were, down came his also. Then there we both lay looking at each 
other. He knew by instinctive experience that we were the Ameri- 
can corvette Scourge, mounting eighteen twenty-four-pounder car- 
ronades and two long eighteens in the bow ports, — for the brigantine 
had once or twice determined their exact calibres, — and that we 
were the fastest cruiser, with the wind a point or two free, that had 
been seen in the West Indies for twenty years. 

“ Yes, he knew all about us, but he was still a little in doubt 
Avhether we knew all about hhn. He lay, — unfortunately, perhaps, 
for him, — a little beyond the range of our long guns, or else he 
might have been spared a good deal of time and uneasiness, and 
we a long chase and considerable risk. Ah ! as the night came the 
very fires he had kindled in his den on shore prevented his escape ; 
for while the calm lasted, the bright flames shone upon him with 
the glare of hell. There we lay all that night without moving a 
muscle or a mile until day dawned, and such a day as did dawn ! 

“ Meanwhile the barometer had fallen an inch and a half, until 
the master began to believe the bulb leaked and the mercury was 
dropping into the case. Then through the murky gloom of da}^- 
light, with the sea one flat, greasy surface, with never the splash 
of a fish to disturb it, while the lowest whisper of the topmen aloft 
could be distinctly heard on deck, as if we were hung in the vacuum 
of an exhausted receiver, where a feather would drop like a bullet, 
suddenly there came a sound from the direction of the cays. Sup- 
pose, Burns, you saw a forty-two-pound shot coming toward you, 
and without you dodged quick your head would be flying off with 
it in the same direction ? ” 


174 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


“ Whist, mon ! ” said Stewart, with a groan, ‘‘ dinna be calling 
up sic peectures of the brain, Cleveland. Paddy, there, ne’er 
thinks of ony meesals bigger than a peestol bullet.” 

“ Well, my friends, we ran precisely a similar risk, though the 
cloudy embrasures over the island had not quite enough thun- 
der to reach us. However, the brigantine knew what would follow 
as well as we did, — better, perhaps, — and before you could swallow 
that glass of wine she was stripped as bare as a bone, and down 
came her yards too, but keeping the sticks up, and spreading a 
patch of a storm stay-sail forward that you might apparently have 
put in your pocket. Her decks and rigging were crowded with men 
while she was doing all this, but the moment it was done, and well 
done, too, they ran into their holes below like so many rats, and we 
could only see a man or two left on deck near the helm. 

“ All hands had been called on board the Scourge at four o’clock, 
and, with the exception of securing the battery, every thing was 
ready to make a skeleton of the ship the moment we saw the brig- 
antine begin ; for she was a wary fish, and we had no idea of let- 
ting her give us the slip the third time. I had the trumpet, how- 
ever, with the captain at my elbow. The instant he saw that the 
brigantine was once more rigged nearly in her old way he gave 
me the word : ‘ Now, Cleveland, work sharp ! ’ 

“ With a hundred and twenty men aloft, jumping about like cats, 
the light sails, studding-sail booms, royal and top-gallant yards 
came down, the top-gallant masts after them, and the flying-jib- 
boom rigged in. 1 Then the top-sails close reefed and furled, with 
extra gaskets, and so with the courses ; preventer braces clapped 
on, rolling tackles hooked, and the spare purchases set up by the 
lower pennants. Meanwhile the divisions on deck had got hawsers 
over the launch amidships, the chains unbent, the anchors lashed 
down on the forecastle, and the quarter boats triced well inboard 
and secured with the davits. At the same time the light stuff from 
aloft was got below, the hammocks piped down, and the carpenters 
clapped the gratings on the hatches, and stood ready with the 
tarpaulins to batten them down. I never beheld a smarter piece of 
work done afloat — not even. Hardy, in the Monongahela. 

“ As I turned round an instant a hoarse, howling bellow struck 
my ear from the island, and I just caught a glimpse of the tall 
cocoa-nut-tree flying round and round in the air like an inverted 
umbrella with a broken stick ; while at the same time the men 
from aloft had reached the deck, and, jumping to the battery, the 


AND THE PITCH HOT 


175 


guns were run in and housed, spare breechings and extra lashings 
passed, and life-lines rove fore and aft. After that, gentlemen, 
there was no farther need of a trumpet. 

“ You all know pretty well what sort of a thing a hurricane is, 
and the one I speak of must, I think, have given you a touch of its 
quality here in Jamaica.” 

“ Ay, by the holy Moses ! we remember it well, bad luck to it ; 
and so does Tom Stewart and Piron, there, for it didn’t lave a stick 
of sugar-cane standing from Montego Bay to Cape Antonio.” 

“ Yes,” said Stewart ; “and, to show ye what a piff of wind can 
do, the whirl of it caught up an eighteen-foot Honduras plank and 
laid it crosswise, like an axe, full seven inches into an old tamarind 
trunk standing in my garden, and then twisted olf the ends like a 
heather broom ! Hech, mon, ye may see it there now any day.” 

Piron was thinking of the barks that were driving before that 
hurricane, with no thought of the damage done to his own planta- 
tions. 

“ Well, then, I shall spare you all prolix description of it ; and 
you need only fancy a ship blown everywhere and every how 
except out of water— now with the lower yard-arms cutting deep 
into the sea like rakes, the lee hammock-nettings under water, the 
stern boat torn away into splinters, the main-top-sail picked, bolt by 
bolt, from the yard until there was not a thread left, and the lee 
anchor twisted bodily out of its lashings and swept overboard. 

“ Then a lull, while the sea got up and the ship dashed down on 
the other side on her bow ; then staggering back and making 
a sternboard till the water was thrown up in a deluge over the 
poop. Recovering herself again, and almost quivering on her 
beam ends, the guns groaning and creaking as the terrible strain 
came upon the breechings, with the shot from the racks bounding 
about the decks, dinting holes in the solid oak water-ways big 
enough to wash your face in, and then hopping out of the smashed 
half-ports to leeward ; the spar-deck up to your armpits in water 
and every man of us holding on to the life-lines or standing 
rigging like grim death, while all the time the roaring, thundering 
yell of the hurricane taught us how powerless we were, by hand 
or voice, to cope with the winds when they were let loose in all 
their might and fury. 

“ Nor need I relate to you the scene presented below — mess- 
chests, bags, tables, crockery flying from deck and beam to 
stanchion, smashing about in the most dangerous way, pell-mell. 


176 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


while the worst of the tempest lasted. But, gentlemen, the 
Scourge had a frame of live-oak, to say nothing of two or three 
acres of tough yellow-pine timber in her, and a good deal of 
fibrous hemp to hold the masts up. Moreover, she was well 
manned, and, though I say it myself, she had a skilful captain and 
thoroughbred officers, in whose sagacity the crew could rely, to 
manage the old Scourge. 

“ That she had,” exclaimed Hardy; ‘‘and the most skilful and 
the coolest of them all was the first lieutenant ! ” The Mononga- 
held*s executive oflScer here bounced off his chair as if he was pre- 
pared to fight any man breathing who did not subscribe to that 
opinion. 

“Well, my friends, that awful hurricane continued for about 
twenty hours, from late one morning till the beginning of the next. 
As for day, there was none ; for the sea and black clouds made 
one long night of it. Fortunately, too, we had been driven off 
shore, and when the murky gloom broke away, and we were able to 
look around, our first anxiety was to see what had become of 
the brigantine. 

“ Yes, and I truly believe, in all that turmoil of the elements, 
while we were on the brink of foundering and going down to old 
Davy’s locker, that there was not an officer or man, from the cap- 
tain to the cook, who was not thinking of that pirate, and hoping 
that he might go down first. I myself, however, felt a sort of 
confidence, as I was held lashed on the poop to the mizzen rigging, 
that the brigantine might be caught and whirled about, — so long as 
she was above water, — by the same blows of the hurricane that 
beat upon the Scourge ; and when the tornado broke, and some one 
sung out ‘ Sail ho ! ’ I knew by instinct that it must be the 
Centipede.^'* 


THE CHASE 


177 


CHAPTER XXXVI 

THE CHASE 

“ With eloping masts and dripping prow 
As who pursued with yell and blow, 

Still treads the shadow of his foe, 

And forward bends his head. 

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, 

And southward aye we fled.” 

” Clap on more sail, pursue, give fire — 

She is my prize, or ocean whelms them all.” 

“ So many slain— so many drowned 1 , 

I like not of that fight to tell, 

Come, let the cheerful grog go round. 

Messmates, I’ve done. A spell, ho, spell 1 ” 

“It was all hands again, gentlemen. The hurricane had settled 
down into a moderate gale from north-east, though it was some 
time before the awfully confused sea got to roll regularly. Then 
we judged ourselves — for reckoning and observation had been out 
of the question — to be a long way south of Jamaica, and even to 
the southward of the great Pedro Bank. We did not wait this 
time for the pirate to lead us in getting ready for a race, but we 
got up a brand-new suit of top-sails and courses out of the sail- 
room, and, so soon as the men could go aloft with safety, they 
were ordered not to unbend the few tattered rags still clinging 
to the yards, but to cut away at once. Up went the top-sails and 
courses, and they were soon brought to the yards and set close- 
reefed, with a storm-jib, to steady the ship forward. Presently 
we gave her the whole foresail and main-sail, and I tliink that 
even then, for some hours, but one-half the corvette’s upper works 
could have been visible as she plunged through the angry, heav- 
ing seas. 

“It left us dry enough, however, to pay some heed to the brig- 
antine ahead of us. She was about four miles off, a little on our 
weather bow, and as she rode up, splendid sea-boat that she was, 
like a gull on the back of a mighty roller, we could see that her 
bulwarks — mere boards and canvas, probably — had been washed 
away, the house between her masts gone, too, and, no doubt, her 
12 


118 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


long gun, or whatever else had been lying hid under it. And 
now she was once more the schooner Centipede, long and sharp, 
and without any rail to speak of, so that we could see her deck 
from the stem to her taffrail at every lurch she made. The only 
difference in her appearance was a short fore-mast, with cross-trees, 
and a top-mast for square sails. Almost as soon as our top-sail 
sheets were hauled home her own yards went up and the sail was 
spread, while, with the bonnet off her foresail, the whole jib, and a 
close-reefed main-sail, she went flying to the southward with the 
gale a point abaft the beam. 

“ Thus we went on, the sea getting more regular every hour, so 
that we could send up the top-gallant masts, get the yards across, 
shake a reef or two out, and put the Scourge in order. The 
schooner needed no encouragement from us, but cracked on more 
sail until her long main-mast reeled and bent over, as she came 
up on th*e breaking ridge of a wave, like a whip-stock. By noon 
the clouds had gone, and left us a clear sky, with the gale going 
down into a full top-gallant breeze, sending the corvette along 
good eleven knots. We got an observation for latitude, and five 
hours later we determined the longitude and our position to be a 
few leagues to leeward of the Sarrana Keys, with that bird of a 
schooner before us heading for the Mosquito coast. 

“ If we had caught a cataract of water as it rolled over our bows 
in the morning, the schooner was taking her bath in the afternoon, 
for occasionally for five minutes at a time there was nothing seen 
of her deck, and only the masts and broad white canvas above, like 
jury-sticks out of a raft. But when she did slide up with her low, 
long hull shooting clean out of water, till nearly half her keel, with 
the copper sheathing flashing in the sun, was visible, she looked 
like a dolphin making a spring after a shoal of flying-fish. And 
then on her narrow deck we could see a few fellows lashed about 
the fore-mast, and a couple of more abaft steering her like a thread 
through a needle. 

“ We began to gain upon her now, and whenever she kept a lit- 
tle away before the wind, the gap between us closed more rapidly; 
for the ship could evidently outcarry the schooner, and, had the 
breeze freshened and the sea kept up, we could run her under, if 
her masts didn’t go out of her, as we hoped and expected every 
minute they would. Gradually, however, she watched her chance 
and hauled up till she brought the wind barely abeam, and steered 
true for the Musketeers — a bad cluster of low keys, nearly sur- 


THE CHASE 


179 


rounded by as terrible ledges and reefs as any to be found in the 
Caribbean Sea. 

“ Her captain was evidently bent upon playing a desperate game, 
but if he thought he would not find another ready to lay down 
the same stake, he was greatly mistaken. It was about sunset 
when we made the keys, and there we went, — the schooner leading 
us about a mile, — at a rate that would have made both vessels leap 
clear over the first ledge they struck, and perhaps have thrown 
summersaults of us into the bargain. I asked the captain, who had 
never left my side on the poop, if we should keep on. 

«‘Yes, sir,’ he replied, ‘ so long as we have a gun and a plank to 
float it ! ’ 

“ And, by Saint Paul, we kept on ! And there was not a soul on 
board the Scourge^ from the drummer-boy up, who did not agree 
with the captain. How these villains on board the pirate relished 
this decision we could only surmise ; but, at all risks, he held his 
course with a nerve that might have made the devil himself shudder. 

“By this time the sun was well down, and a brilliant moon was 
riding high in the heavens ; but, as bright as it was, the fellow who 
commanded that schooner required an eye as keen as an albatross 
and a hand as steady as an iron bar to guide his craft in the direc- 
tion he was going — too late for either of us to think of hauling off. 

“He must, too, have had a thorough knowledge of the reefs and 
keys, and trusted, perhaps, if he got clear himself, that the corvette, 
drawing eighteen feet water and ignorant of the channel, might 
touch something which would throw the game in his hands. Our 
men had the ropes stretched along the decks and the batteiy clear 
on both sides, so as to be ready to wear, or tack, or fire, as our pilot 
ahead might require. 

“ The reefs were to leeward of the string of low keys, which 
made the water comparatively smooth, though the wind still swept 
strongly over us and sung through the rigging ; and it was here the 
Centipede entered, going like wild pigeons the pair of us. The 
outer reef had a fair, deep passage, and so had the next ; but the 
inner one presented but one narrow gateway, scarcely wide enough 
for a ship to scrape through, with the whole reef one uninterrupted 
fringe of black pointed rocks and roaring white breakers, which 
toppled over, and boiled and eddied like a thousand whirlpools 
into the smoother water inshore. 

“As the Centipedes stern gave a sharp, pitching jerk when she 
entered this boiling gorge, we saw, in the moonlight, her head- 


180 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


yards laid square, the fore and aft sails flowing in the sheets as she 
fell ojff with wide wings and the wind on her quarter, and flew 
down inside the reef. 

“ Five minutes after we, too, entered this maelstrom chasm, and, 
tljough the helm was hove hard up and the after-sails shivered, yet, 
before the Scourge's bows, going at the rate she was, could turn the 
sharp angle of that water-gate her port bilge grated against a coral 
ledge, and grooved and broomed the planks and copper away like 
so much sea-weed. But yet that slight graze never stopped us 
a hair’s weight, and, with additional sail, we rushed after our 
pilot, mile after mile, through reef, ledge, breakers, inlets, and 
keys, now braced sharp up, and again going free, until at last the 
fellow, having run us a dance of full ten miles, once more emerged 
into the open water, close jammed on the wind, steering nearly due 
east. 

“ There, Hardy ! ” exclaimed the commodore, ‘‘ I am tired of 
talking ; suppose you take up the thread of the yarn. Domino, 
another bottle of tinto ! ” 


CHAPTER XXXVII 

THE WRECK OF THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 

“ Gun bellows forth to gun, and pain 
Rings out her wild, delirious scream ; 

Redoubling thunders shake the main. 

Loud-crashing falls the shot-rent beam. 

The timbers with the broadsides strain ; 

The slippery decks send up a steam 
From hot and living blood ; and high 
And shrill is heard the death-pang cry ! ” 

“ She struck where the white and fleecy waves 
, Looked soft as carded wool ; 

But the cruel rocks they gored her side 
Like the horns of an angry bull 1 ” 

PiRON turned his gaze toward the first lieutenant, moved away 
his full glass of wine, which he had never raised to his lips since 
the commodore began, and, resting his blooodless cheek on his 
other hand, listened. 

“ It’s vera interesting indeed.” “ Tear and ages, boy ! Fire 
away ! ” quoth the Scotchman and his Milesian crony in a breath. 

Hardy threw his arm over the shoulder of Harry Darcantel as if 
it was a pleasant Corinthian column to lean upon, and, breaking off 


THE WRECK OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


181 


the ashes of his cigar on the rim of a wine-glass which he had 
specially devoted to that purpose, he forthwith began : 

“ I am quite confident, gentlemen, that I cannot describe what 
afterward took place so well as Commodore Cleveland, but, at all 
events. I’ll do my best. Nor do I remember very distinctly the 
events of the night after we got out of the Muskeeters Keys ; for 
I was pretty well fagged out myself, and all of us who had the 
watch below turned in to take the first wink of sleep we could catch 
for forty hours. 

‘‘ The next morning, however, when I took the deck, I found the 
corvette under royals and flying-jib, with a fresh trade-wind blow- 
ing from about east-north-east, and a smooth sea. Though close- 
hauled as we were, and going ten knots, the spray was flying well 
up the weather-leech of the foresail. The Centipede was about a 
mile and a half ahead, jammed on the wind, and trying all she 
could to eat the wind out of us ; but, as the commodore, there, said 
at the time, he had thrown that trick away when he cut off eight 
or ten feet of his fore-mast, and made a brigantine of the craft, so 
that he could not brace his head-yards sharper or lie nearer the 
wind than we did. 

I remember, also, that two or three of the officers and half a 
hundred of the sailors were very anxious to pitch shot at the chase 
from the long eighteen in the weather bridle-port ; but the captain 
refused, and said we might lose a cable’s length or two in yawing 
off to fire, and it would be better to save the powder until we could 
slam a broadside into him. But all the while that Centipede was 
handled and steered in such a thorough seaman-like manner, and 
proved herself such a beautiful sea-boat, that I doubt if there was 
a man on board the Scourge who would not have given a year’s pay 
to have taken her whole, and only expended a spare top-mast stud- 
ding-sail halyards for the necks of her crew. 

“ From the top-gallant forecastle we could see every thing that 
took place on the schooner’s deck : sometimes a lot of fellows for- 
ward reeving some fresh gear, peering about the low bowsprit, 
or putting on a seizing to a traveller on the jibstay ; with a chap 
or two aloft stitching a chafing-mat on the lee backstays ; and then 
aft a man shinning up the main -shrouds, with a tin pot hung round 
his neck, greasing the jaws of the main-gaff, and twitching a 
wrinkle out of the gaff-top-sail, so that it would lie as flat as this 
dining-room table set on end. 

“ But always, from the very first moment we descried her, — be- 


182 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


fore the hurricane and afterward, — there were two fellows abaft 
by the talfrail ; one, a large, fat man, in a long dark dress, who 
appeared at times to be leaning over the rail as if he were sea-sick ; 
and the other, a tall, spare-built fellow who sat there with a quad- 
rant in his hands and smoking cigars, measuring the distance 
between the two vessels as if he were a government surveyor, and 
especially appointed to make a hydrographical chart of the Carib- 
bean Sea. Occasionally, too, we could see him approach the 
binnacle, spread a chart on the deck at his feet, examine it closely, 
with a pair of dividers in his hands, and then he would return to 
his seat on the taffrail, cigar in his mouth and quadrant to his eye 
as before. 

“Nor were we idle on board the Scourge; for when the 
breeze lulled, we slacked up the lower rigging and stays, got 
down all extra weight and hamper from the tops, sent the watch 
below to the berth-deck with a round shot apiece in their ham- 
mocks, moved a couple of carronades about the spar-deck till we 
got the ship in the best sailing-trim, and then we went skipping 
and springing through the water with the elasticity of an india- 
rubber ball. 

“ At noon the sailing-master reported the position of the ship to 
be 280 miles from the nearest land, which was the Darien coast. 
So all that day, and all that night, with a moon to make a lover 
weep to see, we went bowling after our waspish consort in hopes 
before long of taking the sting out of her. No kite ever pursued his 
quarry with a keener eye than we did ; no hound ever leaped after 
a wolf with the froth streaming from his jaws, and with blood- 
red, thirsty eyes, more eagerly than did the Scourge chase that 
infamous pirate. The delay only made our eyes sparkle, and 
our teeth sharper in expectation ; for we knew we would have 
our prey sooner or later, and it was only a bite and a pleasure 
deferred. 

“ The next morning and all the day there was no change to speak 
of in our respective positions. The Centipede went skimming on over 
the water with every thread of canvas she could spread, reeling 
over on her side at times when the breeze freshened, while the 
spray flashed up joyously and sparkled in the sun, leaving a bub- 
bling current of foam in her wake, which, before it had been 
entirely lost in the regular waves of the sea, the corvette’s sharp 
bows would plunge into, and again make it flash high up to her 
fore-yard, and then go seething, and hissing, and kissing her black 


THE WRECK OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


183 


sides until it rippled around her rudder and was lost again in the 
wake astern. 

And all the time that man sat with a cigar in his mouth on the 
pirate’s taffrail, while Commodore Cleveland, there, stood with a 
®Py’g^^ss to his eye on the poop of the Scourge. 

“You may imagine, gentlemen,” continued Hardy, as he again 
knocked the ashes off his cigar, “ that going to sea is attended with 
some few discomforts, such as battening down the hatches in a 
sirocco in the Mediterranean off Tripoli ; a simoom in the China 
Seas ; a bitter north-west gale off Barnegat, with the rigging and 
sails frozen as hard as an iceberg ; but if a man can catch forty 
winks of sleep once in a while, whether in a hammock or on an oak 
carronade slide, with the breech of a gun for a pillow, he may 
manage to weather through it. But from the moment we first saw 
that pirate till we saw the last of him neither the first lieutenant of 
the Scourge nor the commander of the Centipede once closed their 
eyes, unless — well, I won’t anticipate.” 

Piron reached over his hand and shook that of his friend Cleve- 
land convulsively. 

“Vera weel, mon ! vera weel ! ” “He’s the very man to do 
it ! ” said Stewart and Burns to Stingo, nodding backward at the 
commodore. 

Another striking contrast to the hand-shaking, virtuous compact 
between Captain Brand and his friend the pious Padre Ricardo ! 
I wonder if they are shaking hands now ? Probably not. 

“ Gentlemen,” resumed Hardy, as he shook the ashes level in his 
wine-glass, as if he wished to preserve them to clean his teeth with 
after smoking, “ I will not detain you much longer. Both vessels 
were making great speed, and long before sunset we had been keep- 
ing a bright look-out for the land. At last it was reported, trend- 
ing all around both bows, low and with a trembling mirage of 
pines and mangroves looming up, and a multitude of rocky keys 
dead ahead. We were steering directly for Las Mulatus Islands, 
a cluster then little known to any navigators save, perhaps, the 
buccaneers of the Gulf of Columbus, and with the probability, too, 
of running just such another dance as our pilot had led us a night 
or two before. However, we were again all prepared to explore 
the unknown reefs ; and, moreover, we got the starboard anchor off 
the bow, and bent the gables to that and the spare anchors amid- 
ships, so as to be all ready to moor ship in case our pilot required 
us to do so. And likewise the cutters were hanging clear from the 


184 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


davits, — the same boats which had once before paid a compli- 
mentary visit to some of his friends, — supposing he would like to 
entertain us in person. 

“ The sun went down again in a fiery blaze, and with its last ray 
there slowly rose to the main-truck of the pirate a swallow-tailed 
black fiag, with a white skull and cross-bones in the dark field. It 
fluttered for a moment straight out and clear, and then twisted 
itself around the thin mast, never more to be released by hands or 
halyards ! That was the last glimpse those pirates ever caught of 
the murderous symbol they had so often fought and sailed under ; 
and it was the last sun that a good many aching eyes ever looked 
upon who were sailing there in that half league of blue water. The 
moon, however, was riding, bright and beaming, as clear as a bell, 
overhead, and that was all the light we cared for. The Centipede^ 
no doubt, would have preferred no moon at all, with a cloudy sky 
and a bit of a rain-squall, to pursue the intricate navigation before 
her ; but Heaven arranged the atmospheric scenery otherwise. 

“ ‘By the deep eight ! ’ sung out the leadsman in the port chains. 
‘ The mark five ! ’ came from the opposite side. ‘ Another cast, 
lads — quick ! ’ ‘ And a half four ! * ‘ Six fathoms, sir ! ’ 

We must have stirred up the sand, Cleveland,’ said the cap- 
tain ; but even as he spoke the man in the starboard chains cried : 
‘ Three fathoms, sir ! ’ and while each instant we expected the ship 
to bring up all standing, and the masts to go by the board, the 
other leadsman sung out joyfully : ‘ No bottom with the line, sir ! ’ 

“ Well, we were safely through that bed of coral, doing, no doubt, 
some trifling damage to the tender shoots and branches, as we flew 
through a narrow channel, with the waves breaking and moaning 
on the sandy shores over the keys, out into deep water again. 

“ Four or five miles beyond stood out a bluff rock, looking in the 
moonlight like a dozing lion with his paws crossed before him, 
ready to bound upon any who should approach his lair in the 
dense jungle of pines and tangled thickets which stood up like a 
bristling main on the ridge behind. 

“ The Centipede was now but a short half-mile ahead of us, her 
deck alive with men, and manifestly ready for some desperate 
devilment. On her after-rail, too, stood that man, tall and erect, 
his feet steadied by the cavil of the main-boom, a spy-glass to his 
eye, and looking at the rocky lion now close aboard him, still with 
a cigar in his mouth ; and we thought we could even see the thin 
puffs of smoke curling around his face. Suddenly, too, we saw the 


THE WRECK OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


185 


whirled around his head, and at the instant the vessel 
fell dead off before the wind, the great main-sail flew over with a 
stunning crash and clatter of blocks and sheets as the wind caught 
it on tlie other quarter, making the long switch of a mast to spring 
like a bow, while the weather-shrouds slacked up for a moment in 
bights, and then came back taut with a twang you might have 
heard a mile. We could now see, as the space opened behind the 
rock, another frightful, jagged ledge, on which the rollers were 
heaving in liquid masses high up a precipitous rock, and where the 
channel was not a cable’s length wide, leading into a foaming, 
gloomy inlet, where not even the beams of the moon could pene- 
trate. I lieard the captain say, in his old decided way : 

“ ‘ Now for it, Cleveland ! You take the battery, and I’ll look 
out for the ship ! ’ 

“ Then, gentlemen,” said Hardy, with unusual animation, as he 
waved his right arm aloft with an imaginary cutlass swinging over 
his head, ‘‘came the word ‘ Fire ! ’ 

“Yes, the entire starboard broadside, round shot, grape, and 
canister, all pointed toward a centre, were delivered with one simul- 
taneous shock, — the hurricane a mere cat’s-paw in comparison, — 
which shook the corvette as if she had struck a rock, while the 
smoke and sheets of flame spouted out from the cannon, half hiding 
the black torrent which gushed forth from so many hoarse throats ; 
and as the roar of the concussion was taken up in terrible echoes 
from the lion on the rock, a peppering volley of musket-balls from 
the marines on the poop and forecastle made a barking tenor to 
the music. 

“Meanwhile the helm of the Scourge was hove hard down, and 
as she just swirled, by a miracle, clear of the ledge under our lee, 
and came up to the wind with the sails slamming and banging hard 
enough to send the canvas out of the bolt-ropes, the courses being 
clewed up, every thing aloft came down b}^ the run ; anchor after 
anchor went plunging to the bottom, and before the cables had fairly 
begun to fly out of the hawse-holes, with their infernal jar and 
rattle, high above the sounds of flapping sails, snapping blocks, 
running cliains, and what not, came another clear order, ‘Fire ! ’ 

“Then pealed out the port broadside at a helpless, dismasted 
hulk within two hundred yards of our beam, rolling like a worm- 
eaten log on the top of a ruffled broad roller, going to break, in ten 
seconds, on the ledge, whose pointed rocks stood up like black 
toothed fangs to grind its prey to atoms. But before the fangs 


186 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


closed upon it our own teeth gave it a shake ; and as the breath of 
our bull-dogs was swept aft by the fresh breeze, we could see the 
sluggish mass almost rise bodily out of water as it was torn and 
split by the round iron wedges, the fragments flying up in dark, 
ragged strips and splinters with squirming ropes around them, 
looking, in the moonlight, like skeletons of gibbeted pirates tossed, 
gallows and chains, into tlie air, and then coming down in dips and 
splashes into the unforgiving water. 

‘‘ A minute later all that was left of the shattered hull fell 
broadside into the open fangs of the ledge, which ground it with 
its merciless jaws into tooth-picks. But in all the lively music and 
destruction going on around us, — which takes longer to tell than 
to act, — we heard no human voice save one, and that came in a 
loud, terrified yell amid the crunching roar of the ledge : 

“ * 0 Madre / Madre dolorosa/ ’ 

“ This, gentlemen, was the last sound that came from the pirati- 
cal schooner Centipede/^ 


CHAPTER XXXVIII 

VULTURES AND SHARKS 

“ Oh ho ! oh ho ! Above 1 below I 
Lightly and brightly they glide and go ; 

The hungry and keen on the top are leaping, 

The lazy and fat in the depths are sleeping 1 ” 

“ Ah I well-a-day ! What evil looks 
Had I from old and young ; 

Instead of the cross the albatross 
About my neck was hung.” 

When Hardy had concluded his part of the tale, he stuck the 
stump of his cigar into the wine-glass of ashes, as if he had no 
farther use for either, moistened his throat with a bumper of tinto, 
and almost unconsciously passed his left arm around Harry Dar- 
cantel’s neck. 

Stingo drank two bumpers, as if he had a particularly parched 
throat ; but Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart, strange to relate, never 
wet their lips, and passed their hands in a careless way across their 
eyes, as if there were moisture enough there — as, indeed, there was ; 
feeling, as they did, in the founts of their own generous natures, 
for their dear friend who sat opposite. 


VULTURES AND SHARKS 


187 


Piron’s head rested, face downward, on his outspread hands, and 
a few drops trickled through his close-pressed fingers, but they 
were not wine. And as he raised his head and looked around the 
board, where glowing, sympathizing eyes met his, he said, in a low, 
subdued voice : 

“ I trust I may thank Heaven for avenging the murder of our 
child.” 

Even as he uttered these words his gaze rested on the face of 
Darcantel ; and, striking the table with a blow that made the glasses 
jingle, he started back, as he had done on the frigate’s quarter-deck, 
and exclaimed : 

“ Great God ! can it be possible that that boy was saved from 
the clutches of the drowned pirate ? ” 

Not so fast, good M. Piron — not so fast. Your boy was saved, 
and Captain Brand was not drowned. So keep quiet for a time, 
and you shall not only see that bloody pirate, but hear how he 
departed this life ; only keep quiet. 

Paddy Burns said, with a violent attempt at indignation : “ Wirra, 
ye spalpeen ! is it thinking of old Clinker and his arthquake ye 
are ? ” while Tom Stewart ejaculated : “ Hech, mon ! are ye for 
breaking the commodoor’s decanters and wine-glasses, in the belief 
that ye are the eerthquak yersel ? ” Stingo, who was more calm, 
and a less excitable Creole, merely murmured : “ Commodore, we 
want to hear more of what took place, and then what became of 
you for the past sixteen or seventeen years.” 

“ You shall hear more if you are not tired, gentlemen, though I 
have very little to add to what Hardy has already related of the 
Centipede. Steward, let the servants turn in ; and brew us, your- 
self, a light jorum of Antigua punch. Now, then,” said Commo- 
dore Cleveland, “ Pm your man. 

‘‘After we had scaled the guns on both sides of the Scourge, as 
Hardy has told you, the captain thought it an unnecessary trouble 
to lower the boats to pick up the chips floating about the mouth of 
the channel ; and, besides, it would have been a bit dangerous, 
since the sea was coming in savagel}", boiling about the ship, with 
a very uncertain depth of water around and under us ; and, more- 
over, we had our hands full the best part of the night in reeving 
new running-gear, bending a new sail or two that had flapped to 
pieces when every thing was let go by the run in coming to anchor. 
However, before morning we were in cruising trim once more, and 
ready to cut and run in case it was expedient to lose our ground- 


188 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


tackle, and get out of what we afterward learned was the Garotte 
Gorge. But by sunrise the wind fell away into a flat calm, and, 
with the exception of the long, triple row of rollers heaving in 
occasionally from seaward, we lay as snug and quiet as could be. 

“After breakfast the quarter-boats were lowered, and Hardy 
took one and I got in the other, and we pulled in toward the jaws 
of the channel, between the Lion Rock and the ledge on the oppo- 
site side. 

“ There were still a good many fragments of the wreck, which 
had escaped the reacting current out to sea, floating about on tlje 
water ; some of the timbers, too, of the hull were jammed in the 
black gums of the ledge, shrouded in sea-weed and kelp, as if all 
had grown there together. Farther on was part of the fore-mast 
and top-mast, swimming nearly in mid-channel, anchored, as it were, 
by one of the shrouds — twisted, perhaps, around a sharp rock 
below. The top-sail was still fast to the yards, hoisted and sheeted 
home, and laid in the water transversely to the masts, just as it 
fell under the raking fire of our first broadside, jerking over the 
main-top-mast with it. 

“ A myriad of sea-birds, from Mother Carey’s chickens to gulls 
and cormorants, and even vultures and eagles from the sliore, were 
clustered on the wreck as thick as bees — screaming, croaking, and 
snapping at each other with their hard beaks and bills, while 
thousands more were hurrying in from seaward, and either swooped 
down over the ledge or tried to find a place on the floating spars. 

“The Gorge, too, was alive with barracoutas and sharks, leaping 
out of water, or with their stiff triangular fins cutting just above 
the surface, and sometimes even grazing the blades of the cutter’s 
oars. I pulled slowly toward the wreck of the fore-mast, and 
hooked on to the reef-cringle of the fore-top-sail. The birds did 
not move at our approach, and one old red-eyed vulture snapped at 
the polished bill of the boat-hook, leaving the marks of his beak in 
the smooth iron. Down in the clear green depths, too, the water 
was alive with ravenous fish, and we could see at times hundreds 
of them with their heads fastened on to some dark object, rolling 
it, and biting it, and pulling every way, with now and then the 
glance of a clean-picked bone shining white in the limpid water as 
the mass was jerked out of our sight. 

“ The bowmen, however, attracted my attention, and one of them 
sung out, as he pointed with his finger : ‘I say, Mr. Cleveland, here’s 
the captain and his priest lying in the belly of the top-sail J ’ 


VULTURES AND SHARKS 


189 


‘‘ I walked forward, while the men fired a few pistols to scare 
away the birds, and looked in. There, about a foot below the 
water, lay one drowned man and half the body of another, who 
had evidently been cut in twain by a twenty-four-pound shot at 
the stomach, leaving only a few revolting shreds of entrails dan- 
gling beneath the carcass. The other corpse was a large, burly, fat 
man, wrapped in a black cassock, with a knotted rope to confine it 
at the midriff, and around his thick, bare neck was a string of 
black beads, holding a gold and ebony crucifix, pendent in the 
water. The eyes of the one with half a body had been picked out 
by the gulls, but he still possessed a fang-like tusk, sticking 
through a harelip under a fringe of wiry mustache, which gave 
me a tolerably correct idea of his temper even without seeing his 
eyes. The truck and shivered stump of the main-top-mast, too, 
with the piratical flag still twisted around it, lay across his chest ; 
but as we approached an eagle seized it in his beak, and, tearing it 
in tattered shreds, flew aloft, with the remains of the parted hal- 
yards streaming below his talons. 

“ The large lump rolling slowly over beside him had the crown 
of the head shaved, and the mouth and eyes were wide-staring 
open, as if it was chanting forth a misericordia for his own soul. 
As I stood gazing at these revolting objects, and while the men 
were firing pistols and slashing the oars and boat-hooks around to 
drive away the greedy birds, a huge pelican, unmindful of powder 
or ash, made one dashing swoop into the sail, and as he came up 
and spread his broad pinions — nearly as broad as the sail itself — 
he held in his pouch the crucifix from the padre’s neck, and as he 
slowly flapped his great wings and sailed away, with the beads 
dropping pita-pat-pat on the glassy surface of the water, a cloud of 
cormorants, gulls, and vultures took after him to steal his plunder. 

“ At the same time the sharks — many of them resting their cold, 
sharp noses on the very leech of the top-sail, waiting like hungry 
dogs for a bone, with a thousand more diving and cutting in the 
water beneath — at last tore through the canvas belly of the sail, 
and, before you could think, the floating corpses were within their 
serrated jaws. In another moment the bodies rose again to the 
surface outside the sail and wreck ; then another dash from the 
monsters, and a greedy dive and peck from the birds ; a few 
bubbles and shreds of black threads, and that was the last of those 
wretches until the sea shall give up its dead. 

^‘As for Hardy, he pulled higher up the Gorge, and examined 


190 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


the rocks and pools on both sides, but saw nothing, living or dead 
and we both returned to the ship.” 

Had Dick Hardy landed at the flat rock where the eddy swept 
in under the lion’s paws, he might have seen the footprint of a 
man with a straw slipper in it ; and, following the track a few 
yards farther, he would have passed his sword through a villain 
lying bleeding in a mangrove thicket ; and found, too, in his belt, 
snugly stowed away, a lot of gleaming jewels, with a sapphire 
gem of priceless value on the finger of his bloody hand. But 
never mind. Hardy. You will hear more of that man one of these 
days, and you will have no cause for regrets — though he will, per- 
haps ; and, meanwhile, let him wander in quest of fresh villanies 
over Spanish South America. 

‘‘ Well, gentlemen,” resumed Commodore Cleveland, “ although 
I have doubts whether the mangled carcass we saw in the sail was 
the captain of that notorious Centipede, yet I felt confident at the 
time, and do now, that it was scarcely possible for him or a man 
of his crew to have escaped our fire and the water and rocks com- 
bined. So that evening, when the land-wind made, we tripped 
anchor and sailed away from the coast of Darien.” 

“ Come, my friends,” said Piron, in a low, tremulous voice, rising 
as he spoke, ‘‘ we must not push Cleveland too far to-night, for it is 
getting late, you know, and they keep early hours on board men- 
of-war.” 

‘‘No hurry, Piron. Pll talk to you all night, if you have the 
patience to listen to me. No ? Then Pll have the boat manned.” 
He touched a bell-rope which hung over his head, and the cabin 
door opened. “Orderly, my compliments to the officer of the 
watch, and desire him to call away the barge.” 

While some of the gentlemen in the forward cabin left the table, 
and stood about in groups chatting till the boat was reported, Piron 
put his arm around the commodore’s belt, and they moved aft into 
the starboard state-room. Little Mouse was lying sound asleep on 
the elegant cot, with all his clothes on, but with a smile on his lips, 
and dreaming, maybe, of the dear widowed mother he would one 
of those days make proud of him. 

“Cleveland, my old friend, tell me more of that young Dar- 
cantel.” 

“ Hist ! Piron, don’t wake little Tiny. There’s nothing to tell 
more than that he is my adopted nephew, and the son of the gen- 
tleman who occupies that state-room opposite. But when we go 


ESCONDIDO 


191 


out to Escondido I’ll tell you about his father, who has led a very 
adventurous life.” 

“ Well, good-night. You will bring young Darcantel with you, 
and this little rogue, too, here in the cot ? My wife and her sister 
will he delighted to see you all. Good night ! ” 

As the Monongaheld^s bell struck eight for midnight the com- 
modore’s guests got into the barge and pulled toward the shore. 

At the same time a light gig, with handsome Harry Darcantel, 
went alongside the Mosalie, and Commodore Cleveland turned into 
his friend’s cot opposite, leaving small Mr. Mouse to sleep his 
dream out till morning ; while, as the barge ran up to the landing 
at Kingston Harbor, and a gold ounce was slipped into the old 
coxswain’s honest paw, what did they all think about ? Good- 
night ! 


CHAPTER XXXIX 

ESCONDIDO 


“ They bore her far to a mountain green, 

To see what mortal never had seen ; 

And they seated her high on a purple sward, 

And bade her heed what she saw and heard, 

And note the changes the spirits wrought. 

For now she lived in the land of thought.” 

“ ’Twixt Africa and Ind, I’ll find him out. 

And force him to restore his purchase back. 

Or drag him by the curls to a foul death. 

Cursed as his life.” 

Hidden in a cleft of the hills of Jamaica, fifteen hundred feet 
above that blue tropical sea below, on the brow of a cool valley, 
where that bounding stream of white water rushes from the tall 
peak in the sky in tiny cataracts till it forms a pool there, held in 
by the smooth rim of rocks, where the cane-mill is lazily turning 
its overshot wheel, with the spray flying off in streaming mist, and 
the happy blacks stacking the sugar-cane in even fagots as they 
unlade the huge carts with solid wheels cut out of a single drum of 
a cotton-tree ; the six or eight yoke of oxen ahead ruminating 
under the shade of the tropical foliage, with never a switch to their 
tails ; while the lively young sea-breeze comes flurrying up the 
valley, whistling among the coffee-bushes below, bending the 
standing cane on the*slopes, rattling the tamarinds, cocoa-nuts, and 


192 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


plantains, and then climbing with noisy wings up the mountain, is 
lost with a whirl in the heavy cloud which obscures the lofty peak. 

Below the mill, where the mule-path crosses the foaming torrent 
by the shaky bridge, which stands on cocoa-nut stilts, and never 
yet has been thrown down by an earthquake, nestling under a 
precipitous crag, stood the mountain seat of Escondido. Vines 
and parasitical plants, mingled with scarlet creeping geraniums, 
made a living wall of dewy green and red on the face of the 
hoary rock, falling over here and there at some projecting acclivity 
in leafy torrents, and then forming a glowing green cornice along 
the topmost edges of the height. 

The buildings stood on a flat esplanade below, looking down the 
gorge as from the apex of a triangle, and taking in the overseers’ 
houses on the plantations, with their cone-shaped roofs, the fields 
of cane and coffee-groves, the cataract between, down to the snowy 
white beach at the sea-shore, and the blue water crested by waves 
as far as the sight could reach. 

The main house was square — standing on stilts, too, like the 
shaky bridge, the lower part fenced in by straight bamboos, of one 
story, with a broad, roomy veranda going all around, where half a 
dozen grass hammocks were slung between the windows which 
opened into the dwelling. A great airy saloon and dining-room 
faced the valley, while six or eight cool bedchambers looked out 
from the rear up at the green wall of the precipice and down on 
the sparkling stream of the mill. 

But there were no loop-holes for musketry, nor vaults and 
dungeons. 

The sun had long passed the tall peaks of the blue mountains 
above, and the shadows had fallen down the valley until even the 
patch of white pebbly cove at the shore had become dim ; and no 
sounds were heard save the rustling of the sea-breeze, the splash 
of the torrent as it fell off from the rickety old wheel of the cane- 
mill, mingled with the shrill cries and songs of the negroes as they 
unloaded the carts. 

Yes ; but there loere other sounds — the low, sweet tones of 
women’s voices — inside the villa of Escondido. Two lovely 
matrons were sitting within that lofty saloon, hand clasped in hand, 
and gazing with glowing pride upon a lovely girl, who waved 
lithe as a lily on its stem before them. 

It is about seventeen years since we last saw this charming trio. 
And now look at them, old bachelors, and tell me if, while old 


ESCONDIDO 


193 


Time has been scraping the hair off your own selfish heads, and 
pinching the noses, too, of the ancient maids beside you, the scything 
old wretch has not spared these lovely matrons. Look at their 
rounded forms, those soft, dimpled cheeks, and those bands of 
brown tresses, kissing the pear-shaped ears before they are looped 
up in one magnificent knot of satin at the back of the head. Look 
at them, you miserable old procrastinators, and then kneel down 
before the ancient damsels you have sneered at, even if they have 
the pelican gout and a crow’s-foot at the corners of their eyes. 
They are better than you are any day ; so bear a hand, send for 
the parson — and now stand back. 

But come here, my young gallants, and take a peep at that 
Bordelaise demoiselle standing before those fair matrons. Strange 
to say, she is nearly a blonde, with large blue eyes, so very blue 
that, fringed with lashes that cast a shade over the cheek, they 
seem almost black. Then, too, that low, pure forehead with great 
plaits of hair going round and round her elegant head like a golden 
turban, and thin loops of rings quivering in the pearl-tipped ears. 
Tall and waving in figure, as maidens are ; with slim, arched feet, 
dimpled at the ankle ; and round, tapering fingers, too, with a 
wrist so plump and soft that no manacles of bracelets could press 
it without slipping off the ivory hand. Dressed she was in a light 
mousseline, coyly cowering in loose folds around her budding 
bosom to the slender waist, where, clasped by a single buckle of 
mother*o’-pearl, it fell flowing in gauzy, floating waves to her feet. 
Look at her, my gallants, for she is Rosalie ! 

“ They are coming to-day, my aunt ; and Uncle Jules says that 
our dear old Captain Blunt has just arrived at Kingston, and is 
coming with them.” 

“ What else, my daughter ? ” 

The girl held a letter before her face, maybe to hide a little 
blush which suffused her cheeks. 

“ Why, mamma, he writes that the spring-cart, with Banou, was 
to start overnight with the ‘traps,’ — that means trunks, I sup- 
pose, — and that ” 

“ What, Rosalie ? ” 

“ That there is a handsome young ofiicer, the nephew of Commo- 
dore Cleveland — merci^ mamma ! some of Uncle Jules’s nonsense ! ” 

Ko such great nonsense, after all, mademoiselle, when your Uncle 
Piron tells you to keep that fluttering little heart safe within your 
bodice, for there are thieves in blue jackets in the island of Jamaica. 

13 


194 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


Strange, too, as she spoke, — with her animated face, large blue eyes, 
and graceful, wavy figure, — how much she resembled both those 
lovely women, with their darker coloring, who sat smiling sweetly 
upon her. 

“ Oh, here comes Uncle Banou ! Well, my good Banou, what 
news of your master ? ” said Mme. Piron, as she put out her hand 
to the black, who raised it respectfully to his lips. 

“He will be here with his friends at sunset, eh ! And Mile. 
Rosalie must place the gentlemen’s things in their rooms, and see 
that the billiard-house has some cots made ready in it.” 

“ Nothing more ? ” 

“ No, madame.” 

^^Allons / Rosalie, we have no time to lose.” 

Winding through the mazes of the tropical forest, over the 
broken, stony road, leading through a brilliant labyrinth of wild- 
fig and acacia, plume-like palms, white shafts of silk and cotton, 
and lancewood, maliogany, and ebony, parasitical plants in green 
and red, with endless varieties of gay flowers strung and laced in 
superb festoons on trunk and branch ; singing birds and paroquets 
making the forest alive ; while, mingled with the delicious 
fragrance of orange-blossoms, cinnamon, and pimento, the fresh 
breeze wheeled through clump and leaf, changing the hues of 
plant and flower from white to crimson, green, purple, and gold, as 
Nature painted them in gorgeous dyes. 

Through this brilliant vegetation, along the uneven road, came 
the sound of horses’ feet, with hearty shouts and laughter ; and 
presently appeared a cavalcade, mounted on mules and horses, all 
making the forest ring with merriment. 

Ahead came Tom Stewart on a small, sure-footed pony ; and 
behind him Mr. Tiny Mouse, reefer, on a high mule, with a scrub- 
bing-brush mane, looking like a fly pennant at the mast-head of the 
frigate, kicking his little heels ^into the old mule, as if that mule 
minded it even so much as to shake his long ears. Then strag- 
gling in the centre were Darcantel, Stingo, and Paddy Burns; and 
behind them came a tall, muscular man on a mettled barb, which 
he controlled by a touch of his little finger. And at his side, on 
the most diminutive of the donkey breed, with feet touching the 
ground, clung stout Jacob Blunt, the sailor, in more dreadful trepi- 
dation than he had ever known on board his old teak -built brig, 
lying there in the Roads of Kingston ; while the rear was brought 
up by Piron and Commodore Cleveland. 


ESCONDIDO 


195 


“ Now, you little madcap, look sharp when we turn the curve of 
the mountain, and you’ll catch a peep at Escondido ; and don’t you 
pinch that old mule again on her back, or she’ll pitch you up into 
that silk cotton-tree.” 

“If it pleases Providence to restore me safely to my. dear old 

Martha Blunt^ I’ll take my davy never to sit astride of any d 

brute on four legs again ! ” This mild vow came from the lips of 
Jacob Blunt, and he honestly meant every word he said. 

“ Give us another jolly song. Stingo ; it will keep your throat 
clear for the claret.” 

“For the sake of my old timbers, sir, and as you vally my wife’s 
blessing, don’t sing ! There, you infarnal beast, you’ve yawed 
sharp up into this ere bush and put my starboard glim out forever ! 
I say, Don Spanisher, don’t sing — Bm going fast enough ! ” shouted 
the poor skipper, as he passed his paws around the little brute’s 
neck, with his hat over his eyes. 

“ Colonel,” said Burns, as he reined up, and gave the perverse 
little donkey a cut with his whip, which elicited another hoarse roar 
from the old sailor as the animal half doubled himself up, and then 
ambled away like a yawl in a short sea, until he came up to the 
people ahead, when he stood stock-still and brayed maliciously, 
“ have you another cigar, colonel ? Thankee. Fine scenery this 
about here — never visited Jamaica before ? Ye have been off the 
island, eh? It’s a n ate little spot Piron has there, that it is; and 
the whole of us will be mighty sorry to lose him. Is he going to 
lave ? Yes, he is ; and, what is worse, he is going to take his 
swate wife and her sister. Is the sister handsome ? Begorra ! 
handsome ? Why, man, she’s a beauty ! And didn’t I crack the 
elbow-joint of that ugly, abusive divil Peter Growler for saying 
he had seen a gray hair in her head, when I knew it was only a 
loose thread from her lace cap — and me in love with her all the 
time ! Bad luck to him, he’s never fired a pistol since ! ” 

Here Paddy Burns’s small eyes twinkled as he slowly raised the 
stock of his riding-whip at a slender lancewood-tree about twelve 
yards off and gave the lash a sharp crack. 

The person on the spirited barb almost unconsciously put his 
right hand in his pocket. 

Take care, Paddy Burns ; the colonel has a cool hand and a 
colder eye, and has made a study of pistols — cannon and swivels, 
too, perhaps ! Knows the cutlass exercise as well, and has had 
considerable experience in bullets, knives, and ropes ! Has murdered 


196 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


women — lots of tliem ! Wouldn’t stick at killing a child with a 
junk bottle ! And as for men — pshaw ! Keep a bright lookout, 
Paddy. Why, he’d drown your mother if you had a sister to love ! 
For didn’t he drag his own old father and mother down to a dis- 
honored grave ? and do you think, you brave, honest little Irish- 
man, that he would sleep a wink the less sound for putting you to 
death ? Bah ! man. Shoot all the game you spring, but don’t 
waste powder on a tiger or a shark. You would like to take a 
mutual shot with him, though ? Of course you would — who doubts 
it ? But, then, gentlemen fight gentlemen; and this colonel at your 
elbow is a scoundrel, miscreant, villain, assassin, and — pirate ! So 
you can’t take a crack at him, Paddy Burns. 


CHAPTER XL 

PAUL DARCANTEL 

“ Prom the strong will, and the endeavor 
That forever 

Wrestles with the tide of fate ; 

From the wrecks of hope far scattered, 

Tempest shattered. 

Floating waste and desolate.” 

“ Well, Piron, as I have told you, after the peace was made in 
1815 I had command of a brig, and took a cruise on the coast of 
Brazil. After that I was appointed to a thirty-six-gun frigate — 
the old Blazer — and went for three years to the East Indies, and 
round home by the Pacific. When we were paid off I made a tour 
of Europe with that boy’s father, Dr. Darcantel, and ” 

“ But you promised to tell me, Cleveland, something about 
him.” 

“ Nothing easier ; and, if we have half an hour before we get to 
Escondido, I will give you all I know, in a general way, of bis 
history. Yes ? Well, then, Darcantel is descended from one of 
the oldest and best creole families in our State of Louisiana, and 
the plantations of my family and his father were contiguous to 
each other on the Mississippi, some leagues up the coast above 
New Orleans. We had the same tutor when we were children, 
and we grew up from infancy to boyhood together. He was pas- 
sionate and ungovernable even as a child ; but as he was the heir 
to a large estate, and his father dead, his weak mother humored 
and allowed no one to curb him. I myself, one of a numerous 


PAUL DARCANTEL 


197 


family, was put in the navy, and I went away on cruise after 
cruise, and did not get home again to the old plantation for full 
seven years. I was a man then, had seen some active service, and 
I held a commission as a lieutenant in the navy. 

“ In the meanwhile Paul Darcantel, who had taken, at the time 
I left, a strong fancy for medicine and surgery, had been sent to 
France to begin his studies. How he applied himself we do not 
know ; but, with a large letter of credit, he spent a great deal of 
money ; and we heard that, with great talents and wonderful skill 
in his profession, he was yet unfitted for close application, and 
plunged madly into the vortex of dissipation around him. I 
heard, too — or at least my brothers told me — that his extrava- 
gances had seriously impaired his fortune, and that his duels had 
been so numerous and desperate as to make his name dreaded even 
in Paris. On one occasion, at a caf4^ he had cut a bullying 
hussar’s head clean off with his own sabre for knocking a woman 
down ; and in another duel, where he had detected a French count 
cheating him at cards, he shot his nose off for a bet. With this 
unenviable reputation, and at the urgent solicitations of his agent, 
after years of absence he returned to his ancestral home. We 
met as of old — it was Paul and Henry — and though still the same 
restive, hot-headed spirit as he had ever been, he yet always lis- 
tened patiently to what I said, and I could, in a manner, control 
him. He paid very little attention to his property, however, and 
when he did go to the city to consult with his factor or trustee he 
got into some wild frolic, duel, or scrape, and came back worn out 
with fatigue and dissipation. He was a fine, stern-looking youth 
in those days, with great muscular power, which, even with the 
endurance put upon it by gaming and drinking, seemed not to be 
lessened. 

“ After one of these visits to New Orleans, where his long-for- 
bearing agents had at last awakened him to a bitter sense of his 
delinquencies, and when mortgage upon mortgage were laid with 
all their shocking truth before him, he returned and came to me. 
With all his vices and faults, he was truthful and generous. He 
told me all, and how he would try to do better, and soothe the 
declining years of his too indulgent mother. 

I always had great faith in the companion almost of my 
cradle, and I loved him, I think, better than my own brothers. 
Well, he spread all his affairs before me, and in my little den of 
an outhouse on the plantation we both went systematically over 


198 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


the papers. We were two days and nights at the business ; and 
when, at last, I showed him that he would still, with a little pru- 
dent economy, have a fair income, and eventually, perhaps, redeem 
his hereditary property, he burst out in a wild yell of delight and 
hugged me in his arms. When he had put away the papers 1 said : 

“ ‘ Paul, you know I am engaged to be married, and I have not 
seen my sweetheart for two whole days ; she has a sister, too, 
prettier than my Fifine, whom you have never seen since we were 
boys together. Come, will you go with me ? We can pull our- 
selves across the river.’ 

“ He hesitated ; and it would have been, perhaps, better had he 
refused to accompany me, for dreadful misery came of it.” 

The commodore gave a deep sigh, and touched his horse with 
the spur. 

“ I don’t know, though, Piron ; there is a fate marked out for 
us all, and we should not exclaim against the decrees of Provi- 
dence. Paul went with me across the river. There, on the bank, 
was a little bower of an old French-builb-stone house, where dwelt 
the last of a line of French nobility who dated back to the days of 
Charlemagne. It was an impoverished family, consisting of a 
reckless brother and two sisters, who, with a few acres of sugar- 
cane and some old faithful servants, managed to make both ends 
meet, and to support the establishment in a certain air of elegance 
and comfort to which they had been accustomed. They were of a 
proud and haughty race — the brother a disdainful and imperious 
gentleman, smarting and brooding over the reverses of his family, 
and rarely visiting his neighbors. His sisters — and they were 
twins — were trustful, happy girls, and Josephine had been my 
childish love.” 

Here Cleveland bent over his saddle-bow ; and if the quiet old 
horse he bestrode believed the large drops which fell upon his 
sleek neck came from the clouds or the dripping foliage of the 
forest, that animal was never more deceived in his quadruped life. 
We know that fact, for it stands upon the angelic record. 

“ Well, my dear Piron, as we entered the little saloon where 
Fifine was seated at the piano, playing the sweet airs she had sung 
to me when a little bit of a girl, and her beautiful sister bending 
over a table near, absorbed in a book, while the candles under the 
glass shades lighted up her dark, passionate eyes and brunette 
complexion, Paul approached her. It was not love at first sight, 
because they had played together when children ; but it was such 


PAUL DARCANTEL 


199 


a love as only begins and dies with man or woman. The brother 
came in soon afterward ; but there was no love exchanged between 
him and Paul, and they met in a manner which seemed to revive 
the early dislike they had entertained one toward the other in 
boyhood. 

“ So the time passed, and in the course of a few months Josephine 
and I were married, and our home was made on my own old place. 
Still, night by night, in storm, calm, or freshet, Paul pulled him- 
self in a skiff across that mighty river, and we could see the lights 
shining to a late hour in the little bower. He had changed a great 
deal, for he loved with the whole force of his fiery and impetuous 
nature. Pauline loved, too, though still she feared him. The 
brother, however, bitterly opposed their union, and stormy scenes 
arose. Josephine and I did all we could to put matters on a happy 
footing, but Jacques, the brother, grew more determined as his 
sister refused to cast off her lover, till at last his feeling against 
him broke out into open, scornful insult ; and though Paul still 
persisted in seeing Pauline, yet we feared that the impetuous 
spirits of the two men would, at any moment, burst out into open 
violence. 

“ Darcantel, however, controlled himself, avoided as much as 
possible any altercations with Jacques, applied himself to the duties 
of his plantation, and always promised me that he would wait and 
see if time would not induce the brother to give his consent to the 
marriage. Meanwhile Paul’s mother died. A year passed. Fifine 
gave me a little boy, who was called after me, and then I went 
again to sea. Nearly three years later I returned, and the very 
night before I reached the plantation a dreadful tragedy had 
occurred. I might, perhaps, have prevented it had I been there, 
but it was ordered otherwise. 

“ It seems that two days previously Jacques wrote to Paul — I 
saw the letter, and it was something painful to read ; for he not 
cfnly recapitulated his vices and follies, but taxed him with being 
a ruined gambler, who had brought his mother in sorrow to the 
grave, and ended by swearing, in the most solemn manner, that if 
he dared again to speak to his sister or darken their doors he would 
shoot him like a dog. 

“ That evening, as usual, the skiff pursued its way across the 
river, and late at night, when it returned, there was a fluttering 
white dress in the stern. Scarcely, however, had the skiff left the 
bank than a boat pushed out from the other side, manned by four 


200 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


negroes, and came swiftly over in pursuit. What afterward trans- 
pired I heard from an old married couple of servants who had 
passed their lives with the family. It appears that Paul, with 
Pauline in his arms, had barely reached the hall of the great house, 
and was giving orders to close the doors, when Jacques rushed in 
with a naked rapier in one hand and a pistol in the other. Paul 
adjured him, by all he held sacred, not to attack him, as his blood 
was up, and, unarmed as he was, he would do him a mischief. 
Pauline, too, implored him by a sister’s love to desist ; but seeing 
him still advance, as she partially shielded Paul, she told him that 
the man she loved was her husband. 

“ Blinded with haughty rage, this last admission rendered him 
ungovernable, and he lunged with all his force at Darcantel. Paul 
parried his rapid passes, though receiving some sharp thrusts in 
his arm and shoulder, and, still supporting his drooping, terrified 
wife on his left arm till, by a quick spring, he got within Jacques’s 
guard, and, seizing him by the wrist, wrenched the weapon from 
his grasp. This was enough to make the brother totally insane by 
passion from baffled revenge, when he levelled his pistol and fired. 
There was a faint cry with the report, and a groan from Jacques 
as the sword went through his body and heart, till the hilt struck 
hard against his ribs as he fell, a dead man, on the marble pave- 
ment. But the bullet from his pistol had pierced the fair forehead 
of his sister, and she lay a bridal corpse in her husband’s arms. It 
was horrible ! 

“ I spare you all the afflicting details, Piron, and will only add 
that Paul left the plantation that night, and when I got home I 
found an envelope postmarked ‘ New Orleans,’ enclosing a paper, 
which constituted me his sole executor, and leaving our little boy 
his heir. I had but a short leave of a month, and duty called me 
again away. It was on the anniversary of the day the tragedy 
occurred, after another long interval of four years in the Scourge^ 
that I again returned, and there was wailing and moaning in my 
own dwelling. My poor Josephine had never recovered from the 
shock ; she drooped away like a lily, her little boy by her side, 
and both died during my absence.” 

What makes the strong man’s eyelids quiver and voice tremble 
— those eyes that have looked calmly on death and carnage in every 
shape, with his deep, calm voice cheering on the men to battle at 
his side ? Ah ! 

“ It was midnight, and I walked out to the little graveyard 


PAUL DAKCANTEL 


201 


where my forefathers were buried, and bending my steps to a 
cluster of magnolias on a little mound by itself, I — I — a — kneeled 
down beside the sod where reposed all I had loved on earth. I do 
not know how long I remained there, but presently I heard a groan 
near by, and a tall man rose up from where he had been stretched, 
face downward, on the ground, and I beheld Paul Darcantel ! I 
could hardly recognize him at first, for he seemed fifty years older 
than when we had last parted. 

“ ‘ Cleveland,’ he said, in a hollow, choking voice, ‘ forgive 
me ! I am a changed and, I trust, a better man. I have been 
drawn to this holy spot by the same errand which brought you 
hither, and though I did not expect to meet you, yet I am glad of 
it now. Speak, and say you forgive me, and you will shed a ray 
of hope and salvation into the heart of one who will suffer unto the 
end. Speak ! ’ 

“ Old memories crowded around me, and I saw before me the 
child in the cradle, and with our arms around each other’s necks as 
we played together. I forgot, for the moment, the sisters lying 
there — bride, mother, and baby boy. The magnolias bowed their 
white flowers in the light of the waning moon, and we fell again 
into each other’s arms. 

“ After a time he said, ‘ My only friend, I have brought home 
with me a little helpless boy ; he is named Henry, after you, and 
will take the place of the lost little one lying here. Whoever of 
us survives shall inherit that estate. Come with me and look at 
him.’ 

“ He led me to the other mound, and there, beside the tree, a 
beautiful child lay calmly sleeping, wrapped in a sailor’s jacket, 
with his curls escaping from a straw hat, and the head resting on 
one arm on the grave beneath him. 

“‘Be good to him,’ Paul went on, ‘ for the sake of those we have 
lost ourselves. His mother’s name was Rosalie.’ 

“ He stooped down as he said this, and, raising the boy in his 
arms, he kissed him passionately, and then put him gently in mine. 
‘ Let him kneel sometimes at this grave, my friend, and pray for 
me.’ 

“ In another moment Paul Darcantel had gone. The little 
fellow partly woke, and put his arms affectionately around my 
neck, and whispered ‘ Mamma ! mamma ! ’ That dashing, brave 
young fellow ahead there was once that boy. 

“ Well, I took the child to the house, where my good mother and 


202 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 


sisters went wild over him, and there he passed a happy boyhood. 
Years went by, and he grew apace, the pride and delight of us all ; 
and as he evinced the greatest fondness for me and the accounts I 
gave him of my life at sea, I had him appointed a reefer in the 
navy. Since that he has seen a great deal of service ; been distin- 
guished in action ; and, on shipboard as well as on shore, liked and 
respected by all who knew him. 

“ In the meanwhile his father went away, nobody knew whither, 
for years and years. He wrote to me, however, and to his son, 
from all parts of the world ; and when I made the tour in Europe 
I spoke about, Darcantel was my companion. But while there he 
passed a retired life, never went into society, but visited every 
hospital in every seaport from the Mediterranean to Aberdeen, in 
Scotland ; for he is not only a surgeon, as I have reason to know, • 
of wonderful skill, but a thorough-bred seaman too ; and when he 
has been with me on board ship there is no one whose opinion of 
the weather, or other nautical matters, I place greater reliance on. 

I could tell you of half a dozen times when his advice to me has 
saved serious damage. And during all these years Darcantel ’s 
estates, under the careful supervision of my eldest brother, have 
been redeemed from their load of debt, and now he enjoys a noble 
income — or, rather, he spends nothing on himself, but devotes it 
to widows and orphans, and sick or worn-out sailors. 

“ In the seventeen years which have gone by since he brought 
his child to me he has made several visits of a month or two’s 
duration to the plantations, but only when Henry was on leave 
from duty. Then it was a pleasant sight to see them both together, 
and the touching air of affection which bound the youth to his 
father. Henry, from a child, often went and prayed beside the 
grave under the magnolias, and to this day he believes that his own 
mother lies buried there. Perhaps it is as well that he should 
cherish this early belief ; for I may tell you in confidence, Piron, 
that we believe there at home that he is the illegitimate offspring 
of some erring passion of Darcantel, though none of us have ever 
learned it positively from his father’s lips. He is not a person to 
be questioned by anyone, not even by me ; and as he seems anxious 
to throw a thick veil over the past, we never venture to draw it 
aside. 

“ When, however, I was appointed to my present command Dar- 
cantel desired to sail with me, and see the West India Islands, 
which he had not visited for an age. I was only too happy to 


INSTINCT AND WONDER 


203 


have him, especially as Harry there — whom I love like a father — 
was named to the little schooner he had cut out in Africa on his 
last cruise, and ordered to join my squadron. But whenever we 
get into port his father goes quietly on shore ; passes his time, I 
think, among the sailors of the foreign shipping, spending money 
freely among the deserving, and again coming back in his calm, 
stern way. He told me, however, Piron, yesterday, that perhaps 
he might accept your kind invitation to come up here, though not 
for some days. By George ! ” said the commodore, “ that must 
be Escondido ! ” 

Piron sighed as if a pleasant dream had vanished. 


CHAPTER XLI 

INSTINCT AND WONDER 

“‘Hoi sailor of the sea 1 
How’s my boy— my boy ? ’ 

‘ What’s your boy’s name, good wife, 

And in what good ship sailed he f ” 

“Through the night, Ihrongh the night, 

In the saddest unrest. 

Wrapped in white, all in white, 

With her babe on her breast, 

Walks the mother so pale 
Staring out on the gale. 

Through the night 1 ’’ 

As the cavalcade trotted round the curve of the peak, and then 
walked the cattle down the steep zigzag road of the' beautiful 
valley, the commodore said, “ But Piron, tell me who that large 
man is with the black hair and blue eyes.” 

“ Why, Cleveland, all I know of him is that he landed at 
Kingston in a vessel from the Isthmus of Panama, and is going to 
Cuba, on his way to England. He came to me, hearing that I was 
the consignee of old Blunt’s older brig, bound to New Orleans, 
and so home, to know if he could be dropped at St. Jago, where 
he has some property or debts to collect ; and, since the old 
skipper has no objection, he has taken passage in the brig when 
she goes with me and my family. I have since met him — he calls 
himself Colonel Lawton — at dinners of our set, and he seems to be 
an Englishman or Scotchman. Tom Stewart thinks the latter, 
from his accent, and from his liking for snuff ; but Paddy Burns 
differs, and believes he don’t like snuff, but only takes it to show 


204 


CAPTAIN BKAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


his splendid box. Anyway, he speaks all languages, Spanish, 
French, Italian, and English, and can talk slang in them all like a 
native. He has served, too, from his own account, with Bolivar 
there on the Spanish Main, and he was with Cochrane in that des- 
perate affair of cutting out the Esmeralda in Callao Bay. A very 
amusing, entertaining vagabond he is, and I asked him to join us 
to make the acquaintance of my people on our last frolic to the 
valley ; but, somehow, I am rather sorry that I gave him a passage 
with us in the brig, for I don’t altogether like his looks.” 

“ Neither do I, Piron ; his hair is too black for his light blue 
eyes. However, we must make the most of him.” 

Over the shaky bridge of the torrent, where Jacob Blunt prayed 
earnestly for Martha Blunt, and swore at his donkey as if he had 
never rocked on water before ; Mr. Mouse, with a last tiny kick 
on the saddle-flaps of his lofty mule, tumbled off ; Colonel Lawton 
swinging himself from the saddle of his barb as if he had been 
part of him ; Tom Stewart, Paddy Burns, and Don Stingo sliding 
off any way ; Harry Darcantel trying to descend in flne style, and 
failing miserably ; Piron and the commodore doing the thing 
leisurely ; Jacob Blunt pulled off bodily ; while the laughing 
blacks took the beasts and led them away. 

There were three pair of eyes that watched all this grace and 
clumsiness from the windows of the saloon. Two pair of dark 
ones smiled, and the pair of blue opened until they seemed like 
azure globes, and then they closed until the fringe of chestnut 
lashes nearly hid them from sight. 

“ Colonel Lawton, do me the favor to follow my old friend 
Banou — you too. Captain Jacob, and Lieutenant Darcantel and 
Mr. Mouse. Paddy Burns and Stingo, here, will show you your 
quarters in the old billiard-room. Come, commodore, the rest of 
us will find quarters in the casa.” 

An hour later the saloon and sala were all alight, and the sashes 
of the jalousies closed, for it was cool at times up there at Escon- 
dido. There, too, stood the party of gentlemen, Mr. Mouse being 
a prominent figure in the background. Then came a rustling of 
robes, and as the great folding doors swung open the three ladies 
lit up the saloon in a halo of loveliness with brighter rays than 
were shed from the waxlights in the chandelier. Two fair hands 
were placed in those of Cleveland, and the look which accom- 
panied went back to the happy morning on the old brig’s deck, 
away off there to sea. 


INSTINCT AND WONDER 


205 


“ Oh, moDsieiir, I cannot say how glad I am to see you once 
more ! Let me present you to my sister, Mme. Nathalie Delonde, 
and our daughter. Ah ! my dear Captain Blunt, both your chil- 
dren before you again, and you have come to take us away.” 

“ Colonel Lawton, ma chhre^'''* said Piron. 

“ And, mesdames,” said the commodore, “ let me also present 
my nephew. Lieutenant Darcantel, and Mr. Mouse.” 

What caused that woman to start as the girl took the tiny 
reefer by the hand, and impulsively clasped those white hands 
together, while her heart beat in yearning throbs, and her bosom 
rose and fell like billows by the shore ? Why did she then raise 
one hand to her fair neck and, as if in a dream, feel for the golden 
links of the chain, with the other hand pressed to her panting 
heart for the locket which once reposed there ? How was it that, 
bewildered by a mother’s instinct, she gazed at the youth before 
her, and then turned her eyes hopelessly around in search of her 
husband in the crowd ? 

“ Yes, madame. This is my nephew, Henry Darcantel.” 

“ Ah ! Henri ! Excuse me, monsieur. I am charmed to see 
you.” 

Why, now, did the touch of his hand make her heart beat faster, 
and send a thrill of joy through her frame ? Only be a little calm, 
madame, for a while longer, and don’t be sad and ponder all night, 
as your good Jules Piron does habitually. Wait : Jules will tell 
you all he knows when you are alone to-night. 

The doors of the sala were thrown open — the broad pennant 
leading with Mme. Rosalie, the military chieftain marching beside 
Mme. Nathalie, much to the animosity of Paddy Burns. Then 
Mr. Mouse convoying mademoiselle, to the infinite disgust of the 
commander of the Rosalie^ one-gun schooner, formerly the Perdita. 
But what made that old negro in spotless white, standing at the 
door, jerk his head back and open his great eyes till there was no 
black left in them ? And why did he blunder about the table 
afterward and pour wine over the colonel’s richly laced coat, 
while staring like an ogre at the young blue-jacket opposite ? 
That old Banou, perhaps, did not like to see his young mistress 
too much attended to by every gay scamp who came near her. 
Oh, no ; of course not! But then, if that brawny negro in white 
had only known over whose arm and mutilated hand he was pour- 
ing light wine in his abstraction, he would have crammed that 
heavy cut decanter in powdered glass splinters down the chief- 


206 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


tain’s throat. There would have been claret of a different color 
spilled then — quantities of it. You needn’t feel in your pockets, 
colonel, or look round the sala to see if perchance there is a green 
silk rope squirming from the ceiling. We don’t keep any of those 
pretty things out at Escondido. So go on with your dinner, you 
cold-ej^ed scoundrel, and tell all the lies you can to that lovely 
woman at your elbow — how you wanted to save Bolivar’s life, and 
it was saved without you. Don’t forget, either, to tell her how 
that patriot had you drummed out of his army, suspecting you of 
having assassinated the officer near you in the confusion of battle, 
and robbing him of his watch, to replace the one presented to you 
by the captain-general. Paddy Burns is watching you. Colonel 
Lawton, and that whole-souled little Irishman is not the man to be 
trifled with. ISTow remove the covers. But take care, Banou — 
you nearly twitched off the military gentleman’s hair. Tom 
Stewart saw it, and he noticed, too, a broad red seam, like the 
track of a musket bullet — honorable wound, no doubt — under your 
black glossy wig. 

Mr. Mouse had fallen desperately in love with the perfumed 
damsel beside him, and he knew she was up to her rose-tipped ears 
in love with him — oh ! fifty fathoms deep ; but his mother liked 
girls, and he would leave her half-pay ! Still, he didn’t forget his 
adoration for the roast duck ; and he slyly swigged some Madeira 
too, with a wary eye on the broad pennant through the flowers of 
the epergne. Talked, too, did that reefer — ay, chattered — and 
said that the quiet young officer on her left was very well liked 
in the steerage, and commanded a pretty little craft named the 
Rosalie. She knew that before, did she ? Well, his father was a 
cold, stern man, but he was kind and generous, and had been very 
good to his poor mother, God bless him ! 

Commodore Cleveland talked in a low tone, all through the 
dinner, to the lady who did not eat at the head of the table, but 
who occasionally rested her white hand, with a trustful reliance, 
on the great tanned-leather paw of Jacob Blunt, that honest 
mariner not wishing to talk to anybody, man or woman. That 
ancient mariner was mentally cursing donkeys ; speculating how 
he should get back to the Martha J5^wni?brig, in Kingston harbor; 
and praying for Martha Blunt, wife, riding at single anchor near 
Plymouth beach. Piron took wine with everybody, said a word 
or two all around the table, and talked to Tom Stewart about certain 
business matters connected with the plantation when he had gone. 


TKUTH AND TEKROR 


207 


Then came the last course, and the dessert of delicious fruits, 
which quite stopped Mr. Mouse’s mouth, and even his palpitating 
heart ceased beating ; while Mile. Rosalie nibbled some lady-finger 
biscuit, and bent her graceful head to listen to the music of the 
earnest lips beside her. 

We told you, miss, how it would be ; and, in spite of the warn- 
ing, there you are — the color coming and going over your girlish 
cheeks, and never saying a word ! “ What a couple that would 

make!” thought Mme. Nathalie. And what a resemblance in 
expression there is between them — he with his dark hair and eyes, 
and she fair and blue. Be careful, my sweet Rosalie ! And so 
thought her sister and her sister’s husband ; Stingo, too, old 
Banou, and every one save Tiny Mouse, who had no rivals but 
Rat, Beaver, and Martin, and he could take the wind out of their 
sails any day. 

The party of ladies rose from the table, and leaving the men — 
all except the captain of the Rosalie and Mr. Mouse, who would 
have remained had he not seen a shake of the broad pennant’s 
finger — went into the saloon. Then there was a brilliant prelude 
on the piano, a touch of a guitar hy stronger fingers, an air from 
an opera, a song or two, much conversation — while Reefer Mouse 
slept on the sofa — and coffee. Then it was late ; everyone was 
fatigued, bonsoirs were said, and the party — coffee and all — 
separated. 


CHAPTER XLII 

TRUTH AND TERROR 

“ In slumbers of midnight the sailor-boy lay. 

His hammock swung loose at the sport of the wind ; 

But, watch-worn and weary, his cares flew away, 

And visions of happiness danced o’er his mind.” 

“ And how the sprites of injured men 
Shriek upward from the sod ; 

Ay, how the ghostly hand will point 
To show the burial clod ; 

And unknown facts of guilty acts 
Are seen in dreams from God ! ” 

In a great square room, standing, as usual, on cocoa-nut stilts, 
which had once been used for a billiard-room, with half a dozen iron- 
framed cots ranged along the walls, somOrOf the Escondido’s guests 
were to bivouac. Everything, however, was tidy and comfort- 


208 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


able ; snow-white bedclothes and gauze mosquito-nets, lots of 
napkins and ewers, and things for bathing behind a screen of 
dimity curtains ; and not forgetting a large table — vice the billiard 
table — in the centre, on which stood plenty of sugar and limes, 
cinnamon and nutmeg, bottles and flasks, red and white, and — very 
little water, in jugs. 

The occupants of this bivouac were turned in, and the lights were 
doused. Conversation, however, was kept up, especially by the 
thin little voice of Mr. Mouse, who, having enjoyed a nap in the 
early evening, and having been danced and tumbled about on the 
trip to the lodge by Harry Darcantel, who was in tip-top condi- 
tion, the reefer was as wide awake as a blackfish. Don Stingo 
chanted a few convivial airs and snored ; so did Jacob Blunt, with 
a spluttering groan intermixed ; and Paddy Burns fell off into a 
doze, saying blasphemous words addressed to the world at large, 
with a mutter against the military, hoping he might look at a 
Bolivian patriot edgeways, with a friend and companion of his, 
Mr. Joe Manton, at his side — he would put an end to any more lies 
about charges of cavalry and cutting out frigates in Callao Bay. 
That Paddy Burns would, though he didn’t wear a wig and a large 
sapphire on the only Anger he had left on his left hand, and with a 
diamond snuffbox, too ! Presented to you by a connection of 
your family, was it ? Take a pinch out of it ? Confound him, 
no ! Begorra, the snuff is not Lundy Foot’s, and the box is 
brass, sir, brass ! 

“ I say. Mouse, keep quiet, will you, and let me go to sleep ! ” 

Harry Darcantel did not think of going to sleep ; that was a fib he 
told the reefer ; he wanted merely to shut his eyes and dream of — 
you know who — a tall, graceful girl with blue eyes and light hair, 
who looked at him once or twice such looks that there was no sleep 
for him for ever so long. What did she say ? Why, she never 
opened her pouting lips to show those even, pearly teeth. She 
only looked out of those soft blue eyes. That was all. 

“ Mr. Darcantel, I think of getting married.” 

“ The devil you do ! And who to, pray ? ” 

“ Why,” said Mr. Mouse, as he rolled over and kicked the sheet 
off his slate-pencil-built legs, “ I haven’t made up my mind ; but 
do you know that that pretty girl up there at the big house 
has taken quite a fancy to me, and when you were presented 
to her mother she gave me such a squeeze of the hand ! Oh, 
my ! ” 


TRUTH AND TERROR 


209 


Here Mr. Mouse’s narrative was cut short by a pillow hitting 
him plump on the mouth, clean through his mosquito-net. 

“ Very charming young lady, Mr. Mouse,” said a quiet voice, 
in a cool tone, on the other side of him. “ She did seem to take a 
violent fancy to you.” 

Mr. Mouse rolled over, and then, sitting up in his cot, replied, 
“ Yes, sir ; and that was her mother sitting by you when the big 
nigger in white capsized the wine over your sleeve, and nearly 
pulled your a — hair off.” 

Look out, Mr. Mouse ! If that man there beside you once gives 
a twitch at your curls he’ll pull something more than hair — perhaps 
a little scalp with it. 

“ Oh ! ” was the sound that came back. 

“ Yes, sir ; and the other beautiful lady next the commodore is 
her sister. She had a son just mademoiselle’s age, who was mur- 
dered by pirates off Jamaica ever so many years ago, and Commo- 
dore Cleveland chased them in a ship he was first lieutenant of — 
my father commanded the ship — she was the old Scourge.'*'* 

“ Hold your tongue ! ” came from the cot where the spare pillow 
was thrown from. 

“ Ho ! ” said the military chieftain ; but if the room had not 
been so dark the way his eyes opened and emitted an icy glare of 
surprise would have made Tiny Mouse shiver with cold. 

“ Oh, dear, yes, colonel! I heard the commodore tell all about it 
the other night on board the frigate. He thought I was asleep, 
but I kept awake through the best part of it.” 

“ The best part of it ? ” 

“ Why, sir, how an old one-eyed Spaniard deceived my father, 
and sent him on a fool’s errand from St. Jago down to the Isle of 
Pines, and afterward how the Scourge chased the piratical schooner 
in a hurricane for ever so long, clear away to the coast of Darien, 
where they blew her out of water, and killed every scoundrel on 
board.” 

Not every one, Mr. Mouse. There is the very greatest of those 
scoundrels, grinding his teeth and glaring, at your elbow. 

“ What was the name of that cape, Darcantel, where the 
schooner was destroyed ? No, I won’t be quiet ; the colonel 
wants to hear all about it. There’s a good fellow, tell me.” 

“ Garotte Cape.” 

The listener slowly raised the mutilated hand and put the finger 
with the sapphire ring to his throat, evidently not liking the name 
14 


210 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


of that cape, for it caused a chokiug sensation to utter it — ‘‘ Ho ! 
Cape Garotte ! ” 

‘‘Yes, sir; and Darcantel’s father here once chartered a ves- 
sel, and went all the way down there to explore the place, and 
was gone fifteen months. Wasn’t he, Darky ? ” said the boy 
familiarly. 

“ Mouse, I tell you what it is, if you don’t shut up that little 
flytrap of yours. I’ll make Rat lick you when you go on board ! ” 
“ Rat lick me ? ” said Tiny, as he jumped straight up in the cot. 
“ I gave him and Martin a black eye apiece only on our last boat- 
duty day for saying your father, the doctor, had killed his brother- 
in-law in a duel ! ” 

“ Hush, my dear little fellow ; you did a very foolish thing. 
There, say no more on that subject ; it gives me pain, my Tiny. 
So talk on as much as you like.” 

“ My dear friend,” exclaimed the lad, in a broken voice, as he 
plunged through his net and put his arms around Darcantel, “I 
wouldn’t grieve you for the world ; but do you suppose, little as I 
am, that I wouldn’t fight for the doctor, who is so kind to me, and 
has done so much for my poor dear, sweet mother ? ” 

Here there was a sob as he wound his arms closer round his 
friend’s neck and cried like a child, as he was. 

“ Well, never mind. Tiny ; go to sleep now. I am not angry. 
There, turn in.” 

“ I won’t speak another word to-night, Harry, for any soul 
breathing — little fool that I am ! ” 

“ I beg your pardon, monsieur,” said the colonel, in French, 
with a slight quiver on his tongue, “ but did your father really go 
all the way down to Darien out of mere curiosity ? ” 

“ Yes, sir, he did go there to see if by any chance one of the 
pirates had escaped ; and he travelled, too, a good deal about 
among the Indians, making enquiries.” 

“ Ho ! and did he pick up any information there ? ” 

“ Why, sir, I am not positive, but I believe that he got a hint 
that a European had wandered over that country who had been 
wounded in the head and hand, and was almost naked ; but the 
natives could give him but very meagre accounts. He continued 
on, however, down the Isthmus, on the Pacific side, by sea, as far 
as Chili, when he went into the interior to Peru, crossed the Andes, 
and followed down the Orinoco to Para, when he sailed again for 
England.” 


TRUTH AND TERROR 


211 


“ Oh ! no other motive than curiosity ? ” 

“ Perhaps he had ; for he once told me he had some old scores 
to settle with the man who commanded the pirate, and if he was 
alive he felt quite sure he would, one of those days, put him to 
death. My father, sir, is a very determined person, and never 
forgets an oath.” 

“ Truly, monsieur, you interest me. But what sort of a man in 
appearance is your father — a doctor, I think you said? ” 

“ He is a tall gentleman of about fifty, sir, though he looks 
much older ; for he has suffered deeply in early life, when my 
mother — a — died ; but I shall have the pleasure of introducing 
him to you, colonel. He is now on board our frigate at Kingston, 
and told me he would be up here to-morrow or the next day.” 

“Ah ! I thank you extremely, M. Darcantel. I shall have— 
a — much curiosity to see him.” 

No more words that night, but much thinking and moving of 
thin lips, and eyes staring in the dark, wide open. There was 
low grating of teeth, too. And a man lay in that large room on 
a narrow cot, surrounded by a gauze net ; and, so far as mental 
torture went, it was not unlike a trestle-net we once saw without 
gauze, where a gaunt frame was stretched, with myriads of sand- 
flies, mosquitoes, and stinging insects sucking his heart’s blood. 
Sometimes the eyelids closed, as if they were a film of ice forming 
over the blue cold orbs within ; and again the fabric cracked, 
and they were wide open once more. They could read, too, those 
frozen orbs ; and like heavy flakes of snow falling on blood-stained 
decks, till it covered with a weight of lead the stark, stiff corpse 
beneath, they yet tried to pierce into the dark region beyond. 
And the heart beat with a slow and measured tramp, like a moose 
crunching through the sharp, treacherous crust of snow, and then 
stood stock-still. Had a letter, traced with the fingers of an icicle, 
been congealed a hundred feet deep in the heart of a toppling ice- 
berg on the coast of Labrador, those eyes would have read it as 
clear as day. 

“ You infamous pirate. Captain Brand ! ” it began — “ the son 
of the man who destroyed the Centipede and her crew, and the boy 
whom your brutal mate tore from the mother you saw at dinner- 
to-day, are near you ! That calm, stern, determined doctor, too, 
whom you laced down on the trestle for poisonous insects to kill, 
has been on your track for the past seventeen years, and will soon 
hold you in his iron gripe. There will be no mercy then ! ” 


212 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


The eyes closed, the heart stopped beating, and the thin lips and 
tongue, as dry as cartridge-paper, now took up the strain, while 
the mutilated hand clutched convulsively, as if there were fifty 
fingers fingering knives and pistols. 

“ Shall I assassinate my old doctor, and run the risk of being 
arrested and hanged ? No. He thinks me dead, and I will go back 
to the island, redeem my treasure, and pass the remainder of my 
life tranquilly in the Highlands of Scotland.” 

Don’t be too sanguine. Colonel Lawton ; for, though your ten 
thousand pounds in gold is still in the vault, yet there is Don 
Igna9io Sanchez, whose estates have been confiscated, and who 
has just got out of ten years’ imprisonment in the Moro of Havana, 
glad to save his neck from the iron collar, and, without the little 
jewel-hilted blade up his sleeve, is now turning about to see how 
he may redeem his lost fortunes. Don’t be an hour too late, I 
pray you. Captain Brand, for that sharp eye of Don Igna9io has 
already, perhaps, looked at the shiny cleft in the crag, and thinks 
he knows what lies hidden there. Oh, si! nothing but moldy 
beans and paper cigars to live upon for ten years, and fond of 
more substantial food, even though it were yellow greenish gold, 
mildewed by damp, but yet solid and refreshing. Gierto — cer- 
tainly ! Quien sabe — who knows ? 

But be careful, Don Igna9io ! Don’t take your old wife with 
you on that projected expedition, for you have treated that old 
woman — who resembles a rotten banana — badly. You have won 
back in monte all she ever won by cheating, besides the half- 
ounces you used to give her for the Church — cheated her by draw- 
ing two cards at a time when you saw the numerals with that 
spark of an eye, and when you knew that she would win if you 
drew fairly. Yes, you have, you old sinner, for more than two 
score of years. And she hates you now — though you don’t think 
it — worse than you did Captain Brand. Have an eye to that old 
banana. 

So passed that short night — long enough, however, for some- 
body — and before the fresh land-wind had woke up to creep down 
the valley there was seen a mettled barb, with open nostrils, gal- 
loping up the broken road as if he had the devil on his back — as 
perhaps he had, or Colonel Lawton or Captain Brand, possibly all 
three, but it makes very little odds to us. 


PEACE AND LOVE 


213 


CHAPTER XLIII 

PEACE AND LOVE 

“ And many a dim o’erarching grove, 

And many a flat and sunny cove ; 

And terraced lawns, whose bright cascades 
The honeysuckle sweetly shades ; 

And rocks whose very crags seem bowers. 

So gay they are with grass and flowers.” 

It was a delightful breakfast with the merry party at Escondido 
as they sat under the wide, cool piazza in the shade, with the sun 
throwing his slanting rays through the vines and clusters of purple 
grapes, and through the orange trees, where the yellow fruit was 
fast losing its fragrant dew — all the men once more in summer rig, 
and the ladies in flowing muslin and tidy caps. 

“ My dear,” said Piron to his wife, “we have lost one of our 
guests — Colonel Lawton ; he went away at daylight this morning, 
and left a message to me, and compliments to you all, that business 
of importance, which he had forgotten, demanded his immediate 
return to Kingston.” 

There was no sorrow expressed by the lady or her fair sister ; 
and even the men treated it with indifference, except Mr. Burns, 
who remarked, as he snapped a toothpick in twain, that, for his 
part, he was glad the fellow had gone ; he didn’t like his looks at 
all, at all, though he did make himself so fascinating to the beau- 
tiful widow who sat next him. 

“Ah! M. Burns, think you I would prefer a scarlet coat 
when^ ” 

“You might get a blue !” broke in Paddy, with a comical 
twinkle of his eye, as he winked in the direction of Commodore 
Cleveland, who sat opposite. 

“ No, no ! ” exclaimed the pretty widow, hastily, as she shook 
her Anger at her despairing admirer, “ that is not what I was going 
to say — when those red-coats there from England killed my poor 
husband at Quatre Bras ? ” 

“ Ah, yes ! my dear — bad luck to them ! But an Irishman 
would never have been so cruel, you know ; though, ’pon me 


214 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


sowl,” went on Paddy, as he stuck a fork in an orange and began 
to divest it of its peel, West India fashion, to present it to the 
matron beside him, “ I fear I should like to kill any man who 
loved ye, Mme. Nathalie, myself.” 

“ What a droll man you are, M. Burns,” replied the widow, 
laughing outright, “ when you know you would prefer a jug of 
Antigua punch, any day, to me ! Stop now ; didn’t you say, at 
your grand dinner in Kingston, that you would never allow a 
woman to darken your doors ? ” 

“ I — a meant — a black woman, my dear; as true as me name’s 
Paddy Burns, I did.” 

‘‘ What are you two laughing at, my sister ? ” 

“ Why, here is M. Burns making love to me at breakfast, and 
before night he will be abusing me for not pouring enough rum in 
his punch ! ” 

“ That’s his caractur, Mme. Nathalie ; for I, Tom Stewart, am 
the only person he ever loved, and he sometimes offers to shoot me 
for giving him unco’ good advice.” 

“ Howld yer tongue, ye divil, ye ! and you too. Stingo, or the 
pair of ye shall niver taste another sip of the old claret. Ye’ve 
ruined me cause entirely. But I’ll lave ye me property, madame, 
when I’m gone.” 

“ He’s been talking of going, Nathalie,” said Piron, “ for the 
last twenty years, and has left his estate to at least thirty women, 
to my certain knowledge ; but he hasn’t got off yet, and ” 

“ Tom Stewart, ye miserable limb of the law, make out me will 
this very night.” 

Jacob Blunt unclosed his salt- junk mouth and roared out in a 
peal of laughter that would have shivered his old brig’s spanker, 
and caused, perhaps, Martha Blunt, sposa, to have spanked him, 
Jacob, had she heard and seen that mariner wagging his old 
bronzed face at the lovely woman facing him. 

Mr. Tiny Mouse, who could not touch bottom on his high chair, 
with his little heels dangling about, forgetful of discipline, fairly 
kicked the broad pennant on the shins of his white ducks, scream- 
ing joyously ; the three women made the piazza vibrate with their 
musical trills ; Stingo and Stewart choked ; Cleveland and Dar- 
cantel were amused ; and old black Banou looked at his master and 
grinned till his double range of teeth seemed like a white wave 
breaking at the cove. And then Paddy Burns took up the chorus, 
and after one or two Galway yells his friends took him up, thumped 


PEACE AND LOVE 


215 


him smartly on the back, and stood him up against one of the posts 
of the piazza to have his laugh out. When he did, however, 
recover the power of speech he wiped his eyes and looked around 
till they rested on Mme. Nathalie, when, wdth his white napkin 
held up like a shield beside his rubicund visage, he spluttered : 

“By me sowl, Tom Stewart, I mane what I say ; and Paddy 
Burns’s word is his bond.” 

Ay, and so it was, you generous, whole-souled Milesian ! And 
you did this time make a will — Tom Stewart and Stingo witnessed 
it — with handsome legacies therein set forth ; and when one night 

you tumbled down Well, we won’t mention the particulars ; 

but Paddy kept his word. 

As the party rose from the breakfast table to get ready for a 
stroll down to the mill and around the plantation, one fair woman’s 
hand was placed with a confiding, friendly clasp in that of M. 
Burns ; and then, as a graceful girl reached up to pull down her 
great flat straw hat from the post, Paddy Burns kissed her on the 
forehead, and she returned it too, as if she knew how to perform 
that ceremony even before people. Mr. Reefer Mouse had some 
thoughts of getting jealous and calling Mr. Burns out, at ten 
paces, ship’s pistols, and all that sort of thing ; but the round, red- 
faced gentleman kissed him too, declaring the while, as he held 
him aloft, that he was first-rate kissing — that he was ; nearly as 
good as mademoiselle — which quite disarmed Tiny’s wrath, and 
then he hooked on to the damsel’s delicate flipper and tripped away 
with her down the valley. 

Harry Darcantel exchanged a nod — not of defiance — with Paddy 
Burns, as much as to hint that those were not dangerous kisses — ■ 
oh, not at all ; and passing his hand over his brown mustache, he 
followed after the couple before him. Yes, Harry, Tiny’s legs will 
get tired soon, and he will be hungry, and come back to old Banou 
for luncheon, while you will be putting aside the coffee-bushes, 
and imploring jnademoiselle to keep her straw hat about her lovely 
face, and not to get tanned by the sun. And when she turns her 
humid eyes toward you, you begin to believe the sky is never so 
blue as those eyes. 

Tom Stewart, Stingo, and Burns never walked ; they preferred 
lounging about the veranda, smoking cigars, and talking over the 
price of sugar and coffee, together with minor matters connected 
with factors’ profits and suits at law. Jacob Blunt leaned over the 
bridge, thinking of the Martha Blunts, brig and wife — not unfre- 


216 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


quently confoundiDg the two together — thinking this was to be his 
last voyage by land or sea, and that young Binks, his mate, should 
take command and steer that old teak-built vessel carefully — oh, 
ever so “ keerful ” — or else the old hulk might come to grief. 

Piron and his wife went mournfully down the valley — she with 
her mother’s eyes gazing far out to sea, and he, with his strong 
arm around her, whispering words of consolation ; both looking, 
night and morning, out over the blue water, from chamber and 
piazza, and seeing nothing but a breaking wave and a baby boy 
drowning beneath it — nothing more. 

Mme. Nathalie and Cleveland went on gallantly ahead — he with 
his blue pennant flying, and she with a widow’s black silk ribbon 
around the frill of her cap, and a broader band about that muslin 
waist — talking of those they had both lost years ago, and trusting 
they were in heaven, as they believed they were ; hoping to meet 
again themselves in Louisiana and see a great deal of one another 
in time to come — not a doubt of it. Yes, the cruise was more than 
half over, and he was quite tired of the sea. She, however, 
thought the sea beautiful, and never tired of looking at it. True, 
not rolling on top of it all the time — liked to sleep without rocking. 

When the sea breeze came fluttering up the gorge again through 
the canes and the coffee-trees, and shaking up the superb foliage of 
the tropical forest, with the brilliant feathered tribes nestling close 
together on the lofty branches, and before the first salt breath had 
been exhaled in the clouds about the topmost peaks of the Blue 
Mountains, thousands of feet in the air, the party at Escondido had 
again returned to the broad piazzas, where, with blinds open, and 
swinging in cool grass hammocks, the men took siesta, while the 
ladies sought their pretty bowers within. 

- So passed one happy day, like the one gone before ; and before 
the close of the week Dr. Darcantel joined the party, to take the 
place of Colonel Lawton ; and a few days after old Clinker crackled 
up, very dry and thorny, with parchment in his pockets, to take 
inventories, and do musty business generally. 

Then the fair women, escorted by the navy men, and the Droger 
and Stingo, took their departure for the town house and ships in 
Kingston, leaving Paddy Burns, and Tom Stewart, and Clinker 
with Piron to close up matters, prior to his leaving the island. 
Paul Darcantel said he would remain with them likewise, since he 
had got through his business in Spanish Town and Port Royal, and 
wanted quiet. Mme. Rosalie was the last to leave ; and before her 


SNUFF OUT OF A DIAMOND BOX 


217 


husband lifted her into the saddle they stood together on the 
piazza, she looking with that still yearning gaze over the sea, and 
seeing nothing but breaking waves. That was the last look from 
Escondido ! 


CHAPTER XLIV 

SNUFF OUT OF A DIAMOND BOX 


“ Hark I a sound, 

Far and slight, 

Breathes around 
On the night ; 

High and higher. 

Nigh and nigher. 

Like a Are 

Koaring bright ! ” 

“ Not a word to each other ; we kept the great pace— 

Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing onr place. 

I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight. 

Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right ; 

Rebnckled the check-strap, chained slacker the bit. 

Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit.” 

Another week rolled on. Old Clinker had pounded the parch- 
ment down as flat as last year’s palm-leaves, rustling himself like 
the leaves of an old book, and began to squeeze out a few dry 
remarks about earthquakes. He at last got Paddy Burns, who 
was a round, fat man, with much blood in him, in such a state of 
excitement, by talking about cracks, and yawning chasms, and 
splits in the earth, clouds of dust, sulphureous smells, and beams 
falling down and pressing people to powder over their wine, that 
Paddy declared he thought he was swallowing sawdust and eating 
dried codfish at every sip of Antigua punch and suck of orange he 
took. 

Tom Stewar^, likewise, said he couldn’t sleep a wink for quak- 
ing, and had cut a slice clean out of his chin while shaving, 
because his glass shook by a slamming door, and he thought his 
time had come. 

Darcantel said nothing, but he took a quiet fancy to old Clinker, 
and talked for hours with him of the effect earthquakes had upon 
ships, and especially of general matters connected with the ship- 
ping interest, being withal very particular with regard to the 
appearance of the crews. Piron looked grave and heard the old 


218 CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE” 

clerk out, as if dried fruit were better than fresh, and limes 
sweeter than oranges. 

Well, they were all sitting over their dessert at their last 
dinner at Escondido, for they were all going to leave old Clinker 
in the morning. 

“ Well, Clinker,” said Piron kindly, “ don’t let us talk any 
more about the earthquake. You told me yesterday that you had 
a note from Colonel Lawton, saying he would not take passage in 
the brig with us to New Orleans, as his business obliged him to 
leave before we could sail.” 

Clinker choked out something like “ Yes,” as if it were the last 
sound a body could sigh with three or four hundred tons on his 
back. 

“ I’m dooced glad to hear it, Piron ; for your military friend 
didn’t enlist my fancy at all, and I don’t believe any more of his 
patriot sarvice than I do in Clinker’s earthquake. That colonel 
is a baste ; and if my words prove true I’ll lave a thousand pounds 
to old Clinker there.” 

Paddy Burns’s words did prove true ; and old Clinker was with 
him when he gave a quake the earth had nothing to do with, it 
being entirely of an apoplectic nature ; but he got the thousand 
pounds nevertheless. 

“ For once in your life, Burns, I agree with ye ; and if that 
military mon went to shoot grouse with me in the Hielands I’d 
tramp behind him, and keep both barrels of me gun cocked. The 
devil take his black wig and his green eyes ! and he passing him- 
sel’ aff for a Scot, too! Tut, mon ! ” 

“ By the way. Clinker,” said Piron, during a pause in the con- 
versation, “ if the colonel is not going with us, I must, take him 
back his magnificent snuffbox he forgot when he left us so sud- 
denly the other morning. Here it is, with the letters of his name 
on it in brilliants. I thought it too valuable to send by one of the 
blacks, and I kept it to carry myself.” 

How singular it was that the colonel should have forgotten his 
royal treasure ! Keep your wits about you. Captain Brand, or 
one of these days you’ll be forgetting your pistols. 

‘‘ Given to him by a connection of his family was it, Paddy ? 
Weel, mon, let’s take a peench for the honor of Sackveel Street, 
and then push it along to Meester Darcantel.” 

The doctor was sitting in his calm, grave way listening to the 
disjointed words — like dry nuts dropping on the ground— from the 


SNUFF OUT OF A DIAMOND BOX 


219 


shrivelled lips of Clinker ; but as he abstractedly put his fingers 
in the box, and turned his eyes languidly as he pushed down the 
lid, he gave a bound from his chair — with the box clutched in his 
left hand — giving a jar to the room and table that even made 
Clinker believe the forty-year earthquake had come before its time. 

Standing there, with his tall, majestic figure, like a statue of 
bronze, his right arm poised, with clinched hand, aloft in a threat- 
ening attitude, his dark, grizzled locks bristling above his head, 
the black eyes flaming with an inhuman light, as if prepared to 
crush with the power of a god the pygmies around him, he said, 
in a deep, low voice, which made the glasses ring and shudder : 

“ Who owns this bawble ? ” 

“ It belongs to a Colonel Lawton who has been staying here ! ” 
exclaimed Piron, quickly and hurriedly. 

“ What sort of man ? ” came again from those terrible lungs, 
without relaxing a muscle of his frame. 

“ A square-built, tallish fellow, of about feefty, with greenish- 
blue eyes, a black wig, and a glorious sapphire ring on the only 
finger of his left hand ! ” roared Burns and Stewart together. 

Again came the jar of the earthquake to make the building, 
table, glasses, and all shake, as Paul Darcantel strode with his 
heels of adamant out of the sala and to the veranda ; then a bound 
which was heard in the room ; and after five minutes’ stupid 
silence Banou appeared. 

The buckra gentleman had torn rather than led his master’s barb 
from the stable, and, scarcely waiting for a saddle, had thrown 
himself like an Indian across his back. There ! his master might 
hear the clattering of the hoofs up the steep. 

“ The mon’s daft — clean daft, mon ! ” 

“ Be me sowl, it’s the only pair of eyes I iver wouldn’t like 
to look at over me saw-handled friend Joe Manton! ” 

“ He’s taken the box with him,” crackled Clinker. 

But that was the last that Paddy Burns, or Stewart, or Clinker, 
ever saw of man or box. Piron rose and listened to the sound of 
the receding hoofs from the veranda ; and when he resumed his 
place his lips were sealed for the night. He saw, however, and the 
rest of them heard a good deal about the man and the box in time 
to come. 

Did that blooded horse, as he dashed round the curve of the 
peak, with his thin nostrils blazing red in the dark night, know 
who his rider was, and on what errand he was bound ? It was not 


220 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


snuff that distended those wide nostrils as he plunged down the 
broken road, through the close, deep forest, over rocks and water- 
courses, without missing a step with his sure, ringing hoofs ; and 
mounting the sharp gorge beyond with the leap of a stag, his mane 
and tail streaming in the calm, thick night ; the eyes lanterns of 
pursuing light, flashing out before his precipitous tread in jets of 
fire, as his feet struck the flinty stones, with a regular, enduring 
throb from his heaving chest, as an encouraging hand patted his 
shoulder and urged him onward. 

Down the mountain again, with never a shy or a snort — the 
horse knowing the rider, and the man the noble beast ; the lizards 
wheetling merrily, and the paroquets on the tree-tops waking up 
to chatter with satisfaction. Then into the beaten track along by 
the seashore, the horse increasing his stride at every minute, the 
spume flying in flakes from his flaming nostrils, and the man bend- 
ing to his hot neck, smoothing away the white foam, until, with a 
panting stagger, horse and rider stood still in the town of Kingston. 
“ Here, my boys, rub this your master’s horse down well, and 
walk him about the courtyard for an hour. There — take this 
between you.” 

One last pat of the steed’s arched neck, a grateful neigh as the 
dark face pressed against his broad head, and Paul Darcantel 
strode away in the gray light of the morning. 

“ Gorra mighty. Nimble Jack, look at dis ! Bress my modder 
in hebben ! it am one gold ounce apiece, sure as dis gemman’s 
name Ring Finger Bill ! De Lord be good to dat tall massa! 
Him must hab plenty ob shiner to hove him away on poor 
niggers ! ” 

Even while the tall man strode on toward the port, and as the 
happy blacks were chattering over their yapper, and walking the 
gallant steed up and down the paved courtyard, a dull, heavy- 
sailing Spanish brigantine was slowly sagging past Gallows Point 
and the Apostles’ Battery, when, creeping on by the frowning 
forts of Port Royal, she held her course to sea. 

Very different sort of craft from the counterfeit brigantine, 
with clean, lean bows, slipping out from the Tiger’s Trap one 
sultry evening before a hurricane, which went careering, with a 
seahound after her, down to the Garotte Gorge. Different kind of 
a crew too ; and Captain Brand must have remarked the contrast, 
with his keen, critical, nautical eye — that is, if he chanced to sail 
in both brigantines, as there is much reason for believing he did — 


LILIES AND SEAWEED 


221 


with great disgust, on board the dirty, dumpy old ballahoo now 
just clear of Drunkenman’s Cay, and heading alongshore for Hel- 
shire Point, bound for St. Jago de Cuba. 


CHAPTER XLV 

LILIES AND SEAWEED 

“ Oh, leave the lily on its stem ! 

Oh, leave the rose upon the spray ! 

Oh, leave the elder bloom, fair maids. 

And listen to my lay ! ” 

“ When descends on the Atlantic 
The gigantic 

Storm-wind of the equinox. 

Landward in his wrath he scourges 
The toiling surges, 

Laden with seaweed from the rocks.” 

By day and night, under sun or moon, and in breeze or calm — 
by the resounding shore — on the rippling water — in saloon and 
grove — picnicking and boating — under vine or awning — all around 
in the whirling waltz, the measured contra-danza — amid the tinkle 
of guitar or trill of piano, the rattle and crash of full band on 
board the frigate — gently rocking on the narrow deck of the 
Rosalie^ or down in the brig of teak, there was ever a white arm 
linked in the arm of blue — now timidly, then with a confiding 
pressure — now a furtive look of blue eyes into dark, then a fixed, 
steady gaze from the brown to the light— here a palpitating pause, 
and then the blue arms wound around the waving stem — two white 
arms clasping, with a passionate caress, the neck of the weed — 
and, yes ; the lily floating on the white cheek of the pond had 
been caught by the strong weed, and, with the reacting tide, was 
going out to sea ! Ay ; the sailor had won the maiden ! 

But. while the lily rocked hither and thither on the pond, with its 
blond leaves and petals of blue, and its pliant stem in danger at 
every tide, did the fond mothers watch it from the bank ? That 
they did, thinking of the time when they were lilies of the pond 
themselves, with no fears of danger near. But at last it came, 
and, like blooming flowers, they swung to and fro in the rain, 
dropping a tear or two from their own rosy leaves — more in dewy 
sorrow than in fear — and waiting for sunshine ; bending their 
beautiful heads of roses the while one toward another, peeping out 


222 


CAPTAIN BEAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


with their dark violet eyes, and listening, as the wind shook 
them, with a tremble of apprehension, and clinging hopefully to 
the straight support on which they reclined. 

By day and night, in burning sun with not a drop to drink, 
and in the sultry night with no morsel of food to eat — through the 
searing sand in the streets and lanes, down by the quays — to every 
vessel in the crowded harbor — in every hotel and lodging-house in 
Kingston — up and down Spanish Town — away off to Port Royal — 
occasionally going on board the frigate for gold, then on shore 
again — in ribald wassail and drunken dance, gaming-hells espe- 
cially, and low crimping-houses, maroon and negro huts, and 
wretched haunts of vice — scattering gold like cards, dice, rum, 
and water — no end to it — in large yellow drops too — and still 
striding on, questioning, gleaming with those revengeful eyes — 
never resting brain or body — without drink or meat — went Paul 
Darcantel. 

Oh, Paul, that cowardly villain saw you from the very moment 
you took that pinch of snuff out of his blue enamelled box — ay, 
even before, when you walked your mule slowly up the broken 
road, while a goaded barb was curbed back in the gloomy forest 
till you had passed, with his rider’s finger in his waistcoat pocket. 
And in all your ceaseless wanderings, by day and night, that now 
timid, terror-stricken villain has been following you ; dodging 
behind corners, under the well-worn cloths of month banks, in the 
back rooms of pulperias, hiding in nests of infamy, everywhere 
and in all places steering clear of you. 

Oh, Paul, what a deceived man you are! 

And while you are doing all this, just turn your eyes out to the 
calm spot off Montego Bay where that leaky old brigantine is bob- 
bing about : the dirty, surly capitano kicking and beating the 
hands from taffrail to bowsprit, particularly one great tall fellow 
without a hat, and but a few dry thin hairs to shield his skull 
from the scorching sun ; cursing him, as he puffs a cigarette, for 
being the most idle scoundrel of a skulk on board. But he — the 
scoundrel ! — laughing with a hollow laugh up the sleeve of his 
filthy shirt, with never a dollar in his belt or an extra pair of 
trousers in the forecastle — with bare feet, and still, cold eyes, now 
turned to green — eating nasty jerked beef and drinking putrid 
water—never sleeping for vermin — kicked and cuffed about the 
decks. 

But yet he smiled with a devilish, satisfaction, Paul, for he has 


LILIES AND SEAWEED 


223 


escaped yow, and was bound to St. Jago de Cuba. From there 
he would charter — steal, perhaps — a small boat, and run over to the 
Do 9 e Leguas Cays, where there were ten thousand pounds in 
mildewed gold — if nobody had discovered it, which was not prob- 
able — and he, the scoundrel, would gather it up in bags and slink 
away to some other part of the world. 

You must be very quick. Captain Brand, for the leaky brigan- 
tine does not sail so fast as the Centipede^ and your ancient com- 
padre^ Don Igna 9 io, is just out of prison. His old, fat, banana 
wife is very sorry for it, but that’s none of your business. 

And you. Doctor Paul, don’t you pity that flying, dirty wretch, 
with his mutilated hand, and soul-beseeching gaze out of those 
greenish frozen eyes, where a ray of mercy never entered, but 
whose icy lids fairly crack as your shadow stalks across them ? 

No, not a ray of pity or mercy for the infamous villain ; not 
even a twitch of the little finger of his bloody, mutilated white 
hand. No, not the faintest hope of pity. He shall die in such 
torments as even a pirate never devoted a victim to ! 

But you are worn out, Darcantel ; your prey has escaped you. 
The people think you mad, as you are, for revenge ; and though 
your stride is the same, and your frame still as nervous as a gal- 
vanized corpse, yet flesh and blood cannot stand it. Go on board 
the 31onongahela, and talk to that true friend whose counsels you 
have ever listened to since you were rocking in your cradle ; or 
take that noble, gallant youth in your arms and console him, for 
he needs consolation, and think of the mouse who gnawed the net 
years and years ago. 

Well, you will, Paul Darcantel ; but before you do, you will 
step into that jeweller’s shop and buy a trifle for old Clinker 
there, out at Escondido. You want a ring, the finest gem that 
can be found on the island of Jamaica. There it is — its equal not 
to be bought in the whole West India Islands, or the East Indies 
either. 

“ I gave a military man an ounce for the setting alone, but the 
sapphire-looking stone may be glass. He was going to sail the 
next morning in a Spanish brigantine for St. Jago de Cuba, and 
wanted the money to pay his bill at the lodging-house adjoining. 
The senor might take it for any price he chose to put upon it.” 

What made that old dealer in precious stones and trinkets turn 
paler than his old topaz face as he yelled frantically for his older 
creole wife ? The senor had seized the ring as he broke his elbows 


224 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


through the glass cases which contained the time-honored jewelry, 
and dashed a yellow shower of heavy gold ounces over the floor of 
the little shop, smashing the glass door of that, too, in his exit ! 
And when the little toddling fat woman appeared in the most 
indecent dress possible to conceive of, with scarcely time to light 
her paper cigar, she exclaimed : 

“ Es lunatico homhre ! ay^ demonio con oro! — A crazy man — a 
demon with gold ! ” And forthwith she picked up the pieces and 
looked at them critically, to be sure of their value. “ &on buenos^ 
campeche ! All right, old deary ; we’ll have such a podrida 
to-day! Baked duck, with garlic too ! So shut the door. There’s 
the ounce you gave the ofiicer-man for the ring, and I’ll guard the 
rest.” 

That the old woman did, too ; and that very night she won, in 
the most skilful way, from her shaky old topaz, in his tin spectacle 
setting, his last ounce, and locked all up in her own little brass- 
nailed trunk for a rainy season for them both, together with their 
daughter’s pickaninnies. 

Paul Darcantel whirled and spun round the corners and along 
the sandy streets till he reached the landing, moving like a water- 
spout, and clearing everything from his track. There he sprung 
into the first boat he saw, seized the sculls, despite the shrieks and 
gesticulations of the old nigger whose property it was, and who 
jumped overboard with a howl as if a lobster had caught him by 
the toe, and paddled into a neighboring boat, where, with the 
assistance of another ancient crony, they both let off volley upon 
volley of shrieks, which alarmed the harbor, while the boat went 
shooting like a javelin toward the men-of-war. 

However, those old stump-tailed African baboons found a gold 
ounce in their boat after it had been set adrift from the American 
frigate. What a jolly snapping of teeth over a tough old goose 
stuffed with onions that night, with two respectable colored ladies 
and a case-bottle of rum beside them ! You can almost sniff the 
fragrant odor as it arises, even at this distance. I do, and shall, 
mayhap, many a time again, in lands where stuffed goose and 
comely colored ladies abound. 


PARTING 


225 


CHAPTER XLVI 

PARTING 

“ The very stars are strangers, as I catch them 
Athwart the shadowy sails that swell above ; 

I cannot hope that other eyes will watch them 
At the same moment with a mutual love. 

They shine not there as here they now are shining ; 

The very hours are changed. Ah 1 do ye sleep ? 

O’er each home-pillow midnight is declining— 

May one kind dream at least my image keep 1 ” 

There had been a small party on board the Monongahela the 
night before to bid the commodore good-by — all old friends of 
both parties — the Pirons, Stewart, Stingo, and Jacob Blunt. 
Clinker was not there, for he never went where it was damp, and 
if he got musty it must be from mildew on shore. The Martha 
under the careful management of young Binks, the mate, 
with Banou and all the baggage on board, was being towed by two 
of the frigate’s boats down the harbor, with her yards mastheaded, 
all ready to sheet home the sails when the black pilot should say 
the land-wind would make, and the passengers had come on board. 

The lights were twinkling from lattice and veranda in the upper 
and lower town, the lanterns of the French and English admirals 
were shining from the tops of their flag-ships, and the revolving 
gleams from the beacon on the Pallissadoes Point flickered and 
dazzled over the gemmed starlit surface of the water. The awming 
was still spread on the after-deck of the Monongahela y and there, 
while the officer of the watch paced the forward part of the deck 
with the midshipmen to leeward, the sentries on the high plat- 
form outside and on the forecastle, the party of ladies and gentle- 
men stood silently watching and thinking. 

There is no need explaining their looks or their thoughts ; we 
know all about them. How Paddy Burns and Tom Stewart, with 
little Stingo, were going over the time, thirty years or more back, 
when with Piron there, boys together, they all swum on the beach 
of that fine harbor. The old schoolhouse, too, with the tipsy old 
master, who whacked them soundly, drunk or sober ; their frolics 
at the fandangos in Spanish Town ; their transient separations in 
15 


226 CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE ” 

after fife on visits to France or the Old Country ; the hearty joy 
to meet again and drink Jamaica forever. And now their com- 
panion in tropical heat and mountain shade was going to part with 
them, and sail away over that restless ocean, never, perhaps, to 
meet again ! 

Even old Clinker, as he sat on his stem by the old worm-eaten 
desk, with his dried old lemon of a face lying in his leaves of 
hands — with no light in the dark, deserted old counting house — 
looked out between his fibres of fingers and saw the cradle, with 
the sleeping twins within it, while the rafters pressed him as flat 
as the old portfolio before him. And now, as a drop or two of 
bitter juice exuded from his shrivelled rind, he saw those lovely 
twins floating away, never more to be saved from an earthquake 
by old Clinker. 

Mr. Mouse, likewise, was wide-awake, and hopping about with 
a kangaroo step, a little in doubt why Miss Rosalie was so pale, 
why those blue eyes were so dim, and why she said to him, “ Go 
away, little one ! ” with a quivering, tremulous voice and hand. 
Mouse told Rat, and Rat told Martin and Beaver, that the poor 
girl was in love with him, Tiny, and that he would make it all 
right one of these days, when he got an epaulet on his little 
shoulder. 

Softly, like the cool breath of a slumbering child, came a faint 
air from the land. The bell of the frigate, clanging in its brassy 
throat, struck for midnight. The sentinels on their posts cried 
“ All’s well ! ” The old brig was letting fall her top-sails, and 
the sound of the oars in the cutter’s rowlocks ceased. 

“ Cleveland,” said Piron quietly, “ while the ladies and our 
friends are getting into the barge, come down with me into your 
cabin. I wish to have a parting word with you.” 

So they go down. 

“ Now, my dear friend, you have seen as well as I how wildly 
those young people are in love with each other ; so has my wife 
and her sister ; and, indeed, my sweet Rosalie seems more in love 
with him than pur niece. I have not had the heart to put a thorn 
in the path of their happiness, and God grant it may all come 
right ! But, Cleveland, you know that we come from an old and 
noble stock, where the bar sinister has never crossed our escutcheon, 
and I cannot yet make up my mind to an immediate engagement. 

This our niece has consented to Stop, Cleveland ; hear me out ! 

I do not, however, carry my prejudices to any absurd extent, nor 


PARTING 


22*7 


have I spoken on this subject to the girl, but only to her mother 
and my wife ; and I wish you to explain the way we feel, in your 
own kind manner, to your friend’s son. Say to him what a trial 
it has been to us — how we all love him ” — he pressed his handker- 
chief to his eyes — ‘‘ and after he has learned all, if he still persists 
in urging his suit when the cruise is over, he shall have our con- 
sent and blessing. Time may work changes in them both ; and 
meanwhile I shall not mention the matter to our little Rosalie, as 
we fear for the consequences.” 

“ Spoken like a true father and a noble gentleman, my dear 
Piron ! I have thought as you and your excellent wife do on this 
matter ; but, like you, I have not had the courage to give even a 
hint of warning to Henry. I shall, however, break the matter 
gently to him, and send my coxswain for his father also, whom I 
have not seen for a week, and who, they tell me, has been raging 
about Kingston ever since he ran away from you at Escondido. 
His son loves him devotedly, and a word from him will do more 
than I could say in a lifetime.” 

“ The ladies are in the barge, commodore,” squeaked Midship- 
man Mouse, as he popped his tiny head into the cabin. 

“Very well, sir. And tell Lieutenant Darcantel that I wish 
to see him to-morrow morning before church service. Come, 
Piron ! ” 

On the lower grating of the accommodation ladder stood the 
commodore, with his first lieutenant, as the barge shoved off. 

“ I am heartily obliged to you. Commodore Cleveland,” said 
Jacob Blunt, “ for your kindness to me ; and if Mr. Hardy will 
permit. I’ll give the boat’s crews a glass of grog for their trouble 
in towing the old brig.” 

Certainly. Jacob knew what was proper under the circum- 
stances, and liked a moderate toss himself after a hard night’s 
work, as well as the lusty sailors in the boats, and the youngsters. 
Rat and Martin, -vyho steered them. 

So the barge shoved off, with no other words spoken, though 
there were white handkerchiefs wet with women’s tears, and red 
bandannas, too, somewhat moist ; while following in the barge’s 
wake went a light whale-boat gig, pulled by four old tars, who 
could make her leap, when they had a mind, half out of water, for 
it was in those brawny old arms to do it. But now they merely 
dipped the long oar-blades in the water, and could not keep up with 
the barge. 


228 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


They knew — those corrugated old salts — that their gallant, con- 
siderate young captain there in the stern-sheets, with the tiller- 
ropes in his hands, who steered so wildly about the harbor, had 
something more yielding than white-laced rope in his flippers ; 
and that the sweet little craft under white dimity, with her head 
throwing off the sparkling spray as she lay under his bows, was in 
no hurry to go to sea — not caring much, either, to what port she 
was bound, so long as she found good holding-ground when she 
got in harbor with both bowers down, and cargo ready for another 
voyage — not she. 

Finally, old Jacob Blunt, master, again in full command of brig 
Martha^ with Mr. Binnacle Binks catting the anchor forward, all 
sail made, sheets home, and everything ship-shape, with a fresh, 
steady land-wind, and a light gig towing astern, went steering 
out to sea, bound to New Orleans by way of the Windward 
Passage. 

At the first ray of sunrise the gig’s line was cast off ; and with 
the waves breaking over her, those four old sons of Daddy Nep- 
tune bared their tattooed arms — illustrative of shijDS, anchors, and 
maidens — and bent their bodies with a will toward the harbor. 

“ Take keer, sir, if it’s the same to you, or we’ll be on that ledge 
off the ’Postles’ Battery. It looks jist like that ’ere reef in the 
Vargin’s Passage as I was wunce nearly ’racked on, in the 
Smasher, sixteen-gun brig.” 

“No fear, Harry Greenfield.” 

“Beg your parding, Mr. Darcantel, but that ’ere wessel you is 
heading for is that old clump of a Spanish gunboat ; our craft is off 
here, under the quarter of the Monongaheelee,'''* 

“Oh, yes, Charley ; I see the Rosalie,'*'* 

What made these old salts slue gravely round one to the other, 
as their sixteen-feet oars rattled with a regular jar in the brass row- 
locks, and shut one eye tight, as if they enjoyed something them- 
selves ? Probably they were thinking of a strapping lass, in blue 
ribbons, who lived somewhere in a seapo^’t town long years ago. 
But yet they loved that young slip of seaweed, whose head was 
bent down to the buttons of his blue jacket, his epaulet lop-sided 
on his shoulder, his sword hilt downward, and his brown eyes 
tracing the lines of the ash grating where pretty feet had once 
rested, while he jerked the tiller-ropes from side to side, and his 
gig went wild by reef and point toward the Rosalie. 

When the gig’s oars at last, in spite of her meandering naviga- 


DEVOTION 


229 


tion by her abstracted helmsman, trailed alongside the schooner, 
and while her crew were cracking a few biscuits and jokes on deck, 
with the sun high up the little craft’s masts, her captain hurried 
down to his small cabin, and changed his rig for service on board 
the frigate. 


CHAPTER XL VII 

DEVOTION 

“ To walk together to the kirk, 

And all together pray, 

While each to his Great Father bends— 

Old men and babes, and loving friends, 

And youths and maidens gay 1 ” 

“ Farewell I farewell I but this I tell 
To thee, thou wedding-guest. 

He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man, and bird, and beast 1 ” 

Sunday morning in Kingston Harbor. The deep-toned bells 
from cathedral and church were wafted off from the town ; the 
troops at Park Camp marching with easy tread to their chapel ; 
matrons and maidens, with bare heads, fans, and mantillas, going 
along demurely ; portly judges, factors, and planters trudging 
beside palanquins of their Saxon spouses ; negroes in white ; 
creoles in brown, cigarettes put out for a time ; while swinging 
censers and rolling sound of organs and chants, or prayers and ser- 
mons from kirk and pulpits, told how the people were worshipping 
God according to their several beliefs. 

On the calm harbor, too, and in Port Roj^al, lay the men-of-war, 
the church pennants taking the place of the ensigns at the peaks, 
the bells tolling, and the sailors — quiet, clean, and orderly— were 
attending divine service. 

On board the Monongahela the great spar-deck was compara- 
tively deserted — all save ^ that officer with his spy-glassing old 
quartermaster, and the sentries on gangway and forecastle. The 
ropes, however, were flemished down in concentric coils, the guns 
without a speck of dust on their shining coats, the capstan polished 
like an old brass candlestick, and everything below and aloft in a 
faultless condition. 

As Harry Darcantel came rather languidly over the gangway and 
went down to the main-deck, where the five hundred sailors in 


230 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


snowy-white mustering clothes were assembled, Commodore Cleve- 
land beckoned to him with his finger as he stood talking at the 
cabin door to his first lieutenant. 

“ Hardy, I do not feel well this morning ; make my excuses 
to the chaplain, and go on with the service. Come in, Harry. 
Orderly, allow no one, not even the servants, to enter the cabin, 
except Dr. Darcantel, in case he should come on board.” 

The stiff soldier laid his white-gloved finger on the visor of his 
hat. Then the chaplain, standing on his flag-draped pulpit at the 
main-mast, with those five hundred quiet, attentive sailors seated 
on capstan-bars and matchtubs between the silent cannon, and no 
sound save his mild, persuasive voice, read the sublime service 
from the good lessons before him. Then, after a short but impres- 
sive sermon, adapted to the comprehension of the honest tars 
around him, with a kindly word, too, for the sagacious officers who 
commanded them, he closed the holy book and delivered the part- 
ing benediction. 

As he began, a shore-boat, in spite of the warning of the sentry 
at the gangway, came bows on to the frigate’s solid side ; and as 
she went dancing and bobbing back from the recoil of the concus- 
sion, a tall, powerful man leaped out of her, and, by a mighty 
spring, caught the man-ropes of the port gangway, and swung 
himself through the open port of the gun-deck. Bowing his lofty 
head with reverential awe as the last solemn words of the benedic- 
tion were uttered by the chaplain, he joined, in a deep, guttural 
voice, the word “ Amen ! ” and striding on, entered the cabin. 

The curtains of the after-cabin were closely drawn, even to shut 
out the first whisper of the young sea-breeze which was fluttering 
in from Port Royal ; and there stood that noble officer, with his 
strong arm thrown around the gallant youth — the picture of abject 
woe — talking in his kind, feeling accents, trying to console him — 
painting the sky bright in the distance, and begging him, by all 
the love and affection he bore him through so many years, to be a 
man, and trust to his good conscience and his right arm to cleave 
his way through the clouds and gloom which surrounded him. 

“There, Henry! you are calmer now. Sit down here in my 
stateroom, and while you think of that fond girl, give a thought to 
that poor bereaved mother, Mme. Rosalie, who loves you for the 
resemblance she thinks you bear to her little boy, who was mur- 
dered by pirates just seventeen years ago off this very island.” 

“ What do you say, Cleveland ? ” said a voice behind him, with 


DEVOTION 


231 


such deep, concentrated energy that the commodore fairly started. 
“ What did you say about a lost child and a Mme. Rosalie ? ” 
Paul Darcantel stood there in the softened crimson light, with 
his sinewy, bony hands upraised, his gaunt breast heaving, with 
unshorn beard and tangled, grizzly locks, the iron jaw half open, 
and his dark, terrible eyes gleaming with unearthly fire. 

“ Speak, Harry Cleveland ! For the wife you have lost, 
speak ! ” 

“ My dear, dearest friend, do be calm. Why have you been so 
long away from me ? I wanted you here, but you did not come. 
Our poor boy has had his first lesson in this world’s grief, and I 
have felt obliged to tell him all — yes, everything. That the grave 
he has so often wept over, under the magnolia, does not contain 
his mother ; and that ” 

“ Merciful God ! ” said Paul Darcantel, sinking down on his 
knees, with his hands clasped together, while the first tears for 
more than twenty years streamed from his agonized eyes. “ There 
is a providence in it all ! That boy is not my son ! I saved him 
from the pirate’s grasp, and that woman must be his mother ! ” 
Lower and lower the lofty head bent till it touched the deck, the 
bony hands clasped tight together, and those eyes — ah ! those 
parched eyes — no longer dry ! 

“ Paul, Paul, what is this I hear ? For the love of Heaven, and 
those angels who are waiting for us, speak again ! ” 

“ My father — my more than father, I am not illegitimate, then ! 
No such shame may cause your boy to blush for his mother ! ” 
While strong and loving arms raised the exhausted man from 
the deck, and while he becomes once more the same determined 
Paul Darcantel, and, with hand grasped in hand, is rapidly recount- 
ing unknown years of his existence, let us leave the cabin. 


232 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


CHAPTER XL VIII 

ALL ALIVE AGAIN 

“ Among ourselves, in peace, 'tis true, 

We quarrel, make a rout ; 

And having nothing else to do. 

We fairly scold it out ; 

But once the enemy in view, 

Shake hands, we soon are friends ; 

On the deck, 

Till a wreck. 

Each common cause defends.” 

Down in the steerage, where a bare cherry table stood, and 
upright lockers ranged around, a lot of half-starved reefers were 
devouring their dinner — not near so good or well served as the 
sailors’ around their mess cloths on the upper decks — with a few 
urchins utterly regardless of steerage grub, and a dollar oi\two in 
their little fists, all nicely dressed in blue jackets and white trou- 
sers, waiting for the hands to be turned to and the boats manned, 
to go on shore for a lark. 

Abaft in the wardroom, two or three of the swabs, the surgeon’s 
mates, and the jaunty young marine lieutenant were getting into 
their bullion coats and fine toggery, and buckling on their armor 
to do sad havoc among the planters’ families in the evening, away 
there in Upper Kingston. As for the first lieutenant, the purser, 
the fleet surgeon, the sailing master, and the old major of marines, 
they had been ashore before, and didn’t care to go again ; growl- 
ing jocosely among themselves on board the frigate, and glad to 
get rid of the juvenile gabble. 

Presently, and before the hands were turned to from dinner, the 
cabin bell rung so violently that the orderly’s brass scale-plate fix- 
tures on his leather hat fairly rung too as he opened the sacred door. 

“ Tell the first lieutenant I want him! ” 

The dismayed soldier forgot to lay his white worsted finger on 
his visor as he slammed to the door and marched out on the gun- 
deck. 

“ Mr. Hardy, unmoor ship ! Hoist a jack at the fore and fire a 
gun for a pilot ! Get the frigate under way, sir, and be quick 
about it ! ” 


ALL ALIVE AGAIN 


233 


“ Ay, ay, sir ! ” 

As Hardy rapidly passed his old cronies, who were tramping 
along the deck as he mounted the after-ladder, he said, with a nod : 

“ By the Lord ! I haven’t seen the commodore in such a breeze 
since he blew that pirate out of water at Darien.” 

In a minute the Monongahela? s bell struck two, and the boat- 
swain and his mates, piping as if their hairy throats would split, 
roared out, “All hands!” and, a moment later, “All hands 
unmoor ship ! ” 

“ What does that mean ? ” said a cook of a mess to Jim Dreen, 
the old quartermaster, who had just come down from his watch. 

“Mean? Why, you lazy, blind duff-biler, it means that I’ve 
lost my blessed dinner ! ” 

“ Halloa ! ” says Rat to Beaver, “ what’s that ? Unmoor ship 
on my libeity-day ! I swear I’ll resign ! ” 

No, you won’t, reefers, but you’ll trip aloft as fast as your little 
legs will carrj^ you — Mouse in company — up to the fore, main, and 
mizzen tops, and squeak there as much as you like; but jump about 
and look sharp that nothing goes wrong, or Mr. Hardy will be 
down upon you like a main-tack. 

Bang ! from the bow port, and the union-jack at the fore. 

“ God bless my soul, fellows, this is the most infernal tyranny 
I ever heard of ! ” came from the wardroom ; “all of us engaged 
to dine and dance in Kingston this evening, and ” 

“ It’s ‘ All hands up anchor, gentlemen ! ’ ” and away they all 
went. 

Down went the mess-kids, and down came the awnings, and up 
came the boats to their davits ; in went the bars to both capstans, 
the nippers clapped on, and the muddy cables coming in to the 
tunes of fifes; while above the running-gear was rove, the Sunday 
bunts to the sails cast off, and the five hundred sailors dancing 
about on the deck, spars, and rigging of that American double- 
banked frigate, as if they could always work her sails and battery 
to the admiration of their good commodore there, who was look- 
ing at them from the quarter-deck. 

“ Massa cap’tan,” said the shining ebony pilot in his snowy suit, 
as he took off his fine white Panama hat, “ dis is de ole pilot, sa, 
Peter Crabreef — name after dat black rock way dere outside. 
Suppose you t’ink ob beating dis big frigate troo de channel? 
Unpossible, wid dis breeze! ” 

“ Pete Crabreef,” said the old sailing-master, to whom these 


234 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


observations were addressed, “ you had better not give such a bint 
to that gentleman there in the epaulets ; for if you do, you’ll never 
see Mrs. Crabreef again. You had better keep your wits about 
you, too, and plenty of water under the keel, for the commodore 
is fond of water ! ” 

“ Sartainly, massa ossifa. I is old Peter, and never yet touch 
nail of man-of-war copper battam on de reefs.” 

On board the pygmy black schooner near half a dozen old salt 
veterans were squinting at the flagship and holding much deliberate 
speculation as to what all the row meant. Old Harry Greenfield, 
however, with Ben Brown, who were the gunner and boatswain of 
the little vessel, observed that, “ In the ewent of our bein’ wanted, 
ye see, Harry, it will be as well to have the deck tackle stretched 
along for heavin’ in, and get the prop from under the main boom.” 

Even as they spoke, a few bits of square bunting went up in 
balls to the mizzen of the frigate, and, blowing out clear, said, as 
plain as flags could speak, “ Prepare to weigh anchor ! ” 

At the same moment the Hosalie’s gig came bounding like a 
bubble over the water, with the tall gentleman beside the young 
commander in the stern-sheets. There was a great, nervous, bony 
hand now holding his, but with a pressure as affectionate as the 
soft, dimpled fingers he himself had held the night before. Gig 
not steered at all wild now, but going as straight as a bullet to the 
schooner. 

The stirring sounds of the fifes as the sailors danced round with 
the bar« in the capstans, with a beating step to keep time to the 
lively music, were still heard on board the frigate, and then came 
from the forecastle : 

“ The anchor’s under foot, sir ! ” 

“ Pawl the capstan ! Aloft, sail-loosers ! Trice up ! Lay out ! 
Loose away ! ” Almost at the instant came down the squeaks 
from aloft of, “ All ready with the fore — the main — the mizzen ! ” 
“ Let fall — sheet home ! hoist away the top-sails ! ” 

Again were heard the quick notes of the fifes on both decks, 
and in less than five minutes more the anchors were catted, and 
the Monongahela^ under a cloud of canvas, began to move. 

But where was the Rosalie^ late Perdita^ all this time ? Why, 
there she goes, with never a tack, through the narrow strait, lying 
over under the press of her white dimity like a witch on a black 
broomstick, as she shoots out to sea. 

And who is that tall man, on that narrow deck, clapping on to 


ALL ALIVE AGAIN 


235 


sheet and tackle, though there was no need of assistance, or skill, 
or seamanship to be displayed on board that craft, except by way 
of love of the thing ? And why does he, during a pause when 
there was nothing more that could possibly be done, stand by the 
weather rail, shaking a great huge old seaman by both hands till 
he almost jarred the schooner to her keel ? — Ben Brown the helms- 
man, whom you have heard of on board the Martha Blunt ^ who, 
by some accidental word he dropped near to the tall gentleman, 
caused that hand-grasping collision. 

It was not another five minutes before the other thirty-nine old 
sea-dogs knew all about everybody, and where they were bound, 
and so on. They did not care a brass button for the thousand 
silver dollars they were to have from the tall gentleman — not they ! 
They wanted merely to lay their eyes along that Long Tom amid- 
ships, and to have a cutlass flashing over their shoulders — so 
fashion ! Pistols and pikes ! Fudge ! 

But where was the Martha Blunt? Oh, that old teak brig was 
bouncing along past Morant Point, with a good slant from the 
southward, pretty much where she was some seventeen years 
before, with a few more passengers in her deck-cabin, reading 
their Bibles and praying for those who go down to the sea in ships 
on that Sabbath day — one looking with her sad eyes out of the 
stern windows, and another doing the same, and both thinking of 
the same boy who had been dashed out of one of those windows ; 
and though both of them knew the other’s thoughts, yet they 
did not dream they were thinking of the same person at the 
time. 

And where was the Spanish brigantine, with the exacting 
capitano — who was a slaver in dull times — and his pleasant mate, 
who would think no more of sticking a knife into you than he did 
of kicking that skulking, icy-eyed sailor on board — detesting as he 
did the entire Saxon race ever since Cadiz was bombarded — and 
feeding him on rotten jerked beef ? There were no prayers, only 
curses, on board that brigantine as she dropped anchor in St. Jago 
that fine Sunday morning. 

And where was our ancient one-eyed mariner, formerly in com- 
mand of the colonial Guarda Costa felucca, the Panchita^ named 
after his fat banana of a sposa? Oh, the Don — simply Igna9io 
now — had had a quiet confab with the deputy administrador all 
about some treasure which he knew was concealed, and where — for 
he had seen with his bright eye the light of a torch in a cleft of a 


236 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE 


crag, and he would go shares with that official if he would give 
him a little assistance. 

“ Oh^ cierto ! ” Why not ? And there was an old launch, with 
a torn lateen sail, which Columbus might have been proud to com- 
mand ; and, in this fine weather, he might sail back to Port Palos 
in her. 

Oh, yes ! But, to keep all secret, he would merely take old 
Pancha, his wife, for crew. And so, with a few bundles of paper 
cigars, and some dried fish and water — the only property they 
possessed, save his eye and a pack of cards, and those valuables 
rescued with difficulty — they sailed the night before the blessed 
Sunday. He never came back, though. No blame attributable to 
the eye — that was as bright and wary an old burning spark of sus- 
picious fire as ever ; but then old Pancha held the cards, and this 
time she won. Very singular it was, cierto. If Igna9io had not 
gone back again for another bag which was not there, why, the sota 
of a knave being the next card Ah ! we won’t anticipate. 

But we are all alive yet, except those murdered women whose 
white coral headstones still stand up there in the cactus, and poor 
Binks, and those slashing blades of the poisonous, many-legged 
Centipede., who were eaten by the sharks — all alive the rest of us, 
and wide-awake. 


CHAPTER XLIX 

THE ROPE LAID UP 

“ The captain is walking his quarter-deck 
With a troubled brow and a bended neck ; 

One eye is down the hatchway cast, 

The other turns up to the truck on the mast.” 

“ The breeze is blowing— huzza, huzza 1 
The breeze is blowing— away, away ! 

The breeze is blowing— a race, a race 1 
The breeze is blowing— we near the chase.” 

Well, the positions' of all hands were simply these: The icy- 
e3^ed man, without snuffbox, or ring on that mutilated flipper, with 
two under pockets in his shirt, and something in them, a pair of 
filthy old canvas trousers, and no hanger by his side, where there 
had been so much hanging in the good old times, slipped overboard 
like a conger eel and swum on shore at St. Jago de Cuba. With- 
out a real of wages — for he was to work his passage — and because 


THE ROPE LAID UP 


237 


he didn’t feel inclined to work, the capitano in command assisted 
his agile subordinate to kick him all the voyage. 

Had, however, the mate presented that cold eel his knife for a 
moment before he jumped overboard and squirmed to the shore, 
that cuchillo would have found a redder sheath than the crimson 
sash which usually held it. Fortunately, perhaps, for the mate, he 
was not of a generous disposition, save with kicks and ropes’ ends, 
or else he might have regretted his philanthropy. 

So soon as the icy-blue man had congealed, as it were, in the sun 
until he was quite dry and frozen again, he slunk away to the ditch 
of the old fort, where he thawed till nightfall, and then entered the 
town ; hanging round the pidperias^ smacking and cracking his 
arched lips for a measure of aguardiente only two centavos a cup, 
and not caring for that fine, generous, pale, amber-colored old port 
sent to him by the good Archbishop of Opoito. But, not having 
the copper centavos, though his own coppers stood so much in need 
of moisture, he continued to skulk on. 

Presently, coming to the wide streets and to the outskirts of the 
town, he espied a large mule, ready caparisoned for the road, 
hitched to the door of a house, waiting for his owner to mount 
him. 

The icy, green-eyed individual, disgusted for the time with blue 
salt-water, and being, as we know, a capital cavalryman — in dash- 
ing charges among the patriots, and caprioling also up the Blue 
Mountains to Escondido — thought he would take another gallop on 
the dry ground, just to keep his hand and little finger in ; so he 
quietly cast off the mule’s painter, and flung his canvas legs over 
the beast as if he belonged to him. And so he did ; for he told 
the man at whose place he passed an hour or two that night, and 
who thought he knew the master to whom the mule had once 
belonged, that it had been presented to him by an old friend, 
whose name, as had the mule’s, escaped him. 

All this time the one-eyed man, with his banana woman, Pancha, 
were creeping along the water part of the land, with the Peak of 
Tarquina in sight, toward Cape Cruz, bound round that peninsula, 
and so on to the Do9e Leguas Cays ; while the man on the mule 
navigated by the Sierras del Cobre of St. Jago, steering by bridle 
for Manzanillo, and then to take water again for the same secret 
destination. 

The cargo that both expected to take in there was about ten 
thousand pounds sterling in mildewed coin of various realms and 


238 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “CENTIPEDE” 


denominations ; but it was there, and would pass current any- 
where. 

So they sailed and navigated. It was tedious work, though ; 
and it took a week for the old launch with the torn sail to get into 
the Tiger’s Trap — fine weather, and no sea — and there make fast 
to the rocks. At the same evening hour the mule, with his pas- 
senger, planted his forefeet, like a pair of kedges over his bows, 
in the fishing village near Manzanillo, and foundered bodily, going 
down with his freight, slap-dash in the mud. The passenger, how- 
ever, escaped, and skulked along by the shore, where he fell in 
with a poor fisherman who was about to shove off in his trim, 
wholesome bark for professional recreation on the Esperanza 
bank. 

Glad was old Miguel Tortuga to have a strong man to assist him 
for the privilege of joining in a sip of aguardiente and catching a 
red snapper or two ; so they jumped on board and spread the sail. 

Had old Miguel, however, seen the sharklike eyes of his assist- 
ant in the sunlight, or dreamed what a snapper was about to catch 
A^m, he would not have gone fishing that night, and it would have 
saved him much tribulation at daylight the next morning, when he 
was picked off a small rock by a fisher acquaintance of his from 
Manzanillo. 

But we have nothing to do with old Miguel, and need only say 
to console him, that his stanch boat went safely through the blue 
gateway of the roaring ledge of white breakers, and late Sunday 
night lay calmly in the inlet abreast Captain Brand’s former 
dwelling. 

To go back again for a week, Monongahela — double-banked 
leviathan as she was — came plunging out to sea from Kingston, 
every man and boy, from Jack Smith on her forecastle to Bill 
Pump in the spirit-room, and from Richard Hardy to Tiny Mouse, 
knowing from the first plunge the frigate made what they all 
sailed for. 

With her proud head toward the east, she went dashing on past 
the White Horse Rocks, and woe to the small, angry waves which 
did not get out of her way, for she smashed them contemptuously 
in foaming masses from her majestic bows, sending them back in 
sparkling spray and bubbles to hiss their angry way to leeward in 
her wake. On she went, far off to sea, where the trade-wind was 
strongest, disdaining gentle zephyrs near the land, with her great 
square yards swinging round at every watch while beating to 


THE ROPE LAID UP 


239 


windward — the tacks close down, yards as fine as they would lay, 
and the heavy sheets flat aft. 

Every evening the surgeon, the purser, the chaplain, the major, 
and the old sailing-master were in the cabin, going over the chase 
of a certain pirate in a schooner Centipede away down on the 
Darien coast, with Cape Garotte there under their lee, and the vul- 
tures and the sharks grinding the bones and tearing the flesh of 
the half of a man with the tusk gleaming out of his wiry mus- 
tache ; and the padre, with his eyes staring wide open, and the 
crucifix borne away by the carnivorous birds of prey. 

All of those dreadful particulars, together with matters that had 
gone before — of a lost boy, a heart-broken mother, and a murdered 
mate, Mr. Binks, on board the brig Martha Blunt — the party at 
Escondido, the snuffbox, and Paul Darcantel — all about him, too, 
from the tragedy on the plantation, his despair, and reckless life 
afterward, when he served in slavers, where he did something to 
allay the sufferings of the poor wretches ; and afterward how he 
was trepanned to the “ Do9e Leguas,” went a cruise with Mr. Bill 
Gibbs, whose leg he hacked off with a handsaw, not knowing at 
the time about the locket ; the little child he had saved ; how that 
child had saved him from his torture on the trestle with his 
mouse-like teeth ; how he had wandered the wide world over 
searching and searching for the mother of that boy ! 

And there the boy was — the manly, brave young fellow now — 
whom officers and sailors had always loved, flying away with the 
dark doctor — no longer Darcantel, but Harry Piron — with his 
fond father and mother in the distance, and the sweet girl he 
adored with her blond head resting in her mother’s lap. 

Ay, every soul in the ship knew all about it, and talked of it, 
and drank to the happiness of the young couple — all save Dick 
Hardy, who moved energetically about the frigate’s decks, with 
his eyes everywhere, below and aloft, prompt, sharp, and quick, 
quite like Cleveland, there, beside him, when they were together 
in the old Scourge during the hurricane, and chased, to her destruc- 
tion, the Centipede. 

“ Sail ho ! ” sung out the man on the fore-top-sail yard. ~ 

“ Where away ? ” 

“ Right ahead, sir. A brig on the starboard tack.” 

Ay, the old Martha Blunt bouncing along under all sail, squar- 
ing off at the short-armed seas, and striking them doggedly, as 
she beat up for the Windward Passage between Hayti and Cuba. 


240 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


But there was an old sea-bruiser of a different build, who wore 
the belt in the West Indies, and was after that sturdy old brig with 
teak ribs for a hearty set-to; and when she came up alongside, in 
the friendly sparring-match which ensued while both squared their 
main-yards, and lay for an hour side by side, there was consider- 
able conversation ; so much talk, in fact — boats going to and fro, 
mingled with roars and shrieks, and clasping of hands on board the 
brig — never a sound on board the ship — that the blue pennant flut- 
tered in such a way it was hard to tell whether it was Jacob, or 
Piron, or the sweet wife, or mademoiselle, or her lovely mother, 
who threw their arms around that pennant’s truck. 

Then yard-arm and yard-arm, the frigate with her canvas 
canopy of upper sails furled, and the brig in her best bib and 
tucker, they both filled away and moved side by side. 

For a day or two they went on, talking and laughing to one 
another in these friendly shakes of the hand over blue water, until 
one day, the brig being to windward, she came upon an old water- 
logged launch, with a broken mast and a torn sail hanging over 
her side. 

It fell calm, and Jacob Blunt ordered young Binks to get into 
the yawl and tow the boat alongside, and to be smart about it ; 
for the breeze might make so soon as the fog rose, and the commo- 
dore was not the man to be kept waiting in a big frigate. Mr. 
Binks was smart about it, and presently he returned — though 
there was no hurry, for the calm lasted a long time — with his 
water-logged prize. 

There was no human being in this prize ; but when she came 
alongside, and a yard tackle was hooked on to let the water drain 
out of her, Jacob Blunt and the people on board gave a pleasant 
yell of astonishment. 

It was not the soiled pack of Si)anish cards, or the few bundles 
of saturated paper cigars floating about, which caused this excite- 
ment. No, it was several canvas bags lying there in the stern- 
sheets, strapped with strands of a woman’s red petticoat to the 
empty water-cask beneath the thwarts ; and not one of those can- 
vas bags, or what was in them, injured in the least by salt water. 
Very carefully were those bags — and they were weighty — lifted 
on board the brig, over the rail where the pirates swarmed some 
long years ago, on to the quarter-deck ; and then there was another 
joyous shout from Jacob Blunt, as when he had hailed the trade- 
wind in that long-past time. 


THE ROPE LAID UP 


241 


“ By all that’s wonderful, here is ray old bag of guineas, and 
some few Spanish milled dollars ! Look at the mark, my 
darlings ! ” 

Another weighty bag was set aside for Mrs. Timothy Binks, 
and the rest were devoted, with some large doubloon reservations 
for the crew, to Martha Blunt and Jacob Blunt in their declining 
years. 

Then, the weather being still calm and foggy, Jacob and his 
passengers went on board the double-banked frigate for church 
service, where they all prayed with much hope and thanksgiving 
for what had passed and what was to come ; and then they went 
into the commodore’s cabin, where they remained ever so long a 
time. 

Let us go back this same week again — a very long seven days it 
has been for everybody, particularly so for the icy-eyed man, who 
was extremely anxious, as he kicked and lashed his mule, and kept 
looking round the south side of Jamaica, from Portland Point to 
Pedro Bluff and San Negril, throwing a ray of cold frost there day 
and night, expecting that tall doctor to come striding along in 
that deep water, heading due north. 

And at last the dark figure hove in sight, in the schooner 
Rosalie — the sweet little craft skimming exultingly over the seas, 
kissing them occasionally with both her dainty, glistening cheeks, 
reeling joyously over on her side, \vith her tidy dimity laced and 
spread in one flat sheet of white, while the slender arms bent like 
whalebone to the freshening breeze, and she left the dancing 
bubbles sparkling and flashing lovingly in her wake. 

Two hundred miles to go, and the breeze fell from fresh to light, 
until at last shrouded in a thick fog, one Sunday morning, when 
there was no air at all, only a flat calm, the sea as smooth as a 
glass mirror with the quicksilver clouded. 

Then out sweeps, my lads ! Ten of a side, and two of those 
bronzed old lads at each sweep. All except the two after ones, 
where Ben Brown and the tall doctor handled one apiece. 

Thus, with sails down and bare arras, the light little Rosalie 
continued gliding rapidly over the mirrored surface — a little 
ashamed of herself, perhaps, at being seen in such a scanty rig — 
while her commander guided her graceful course, and Harry Green- 
field peered about forward to see that no harm should arrest her 
dainty footsteps. 

Presently was heard the toll of a bell. The sweeps paused, the 

10 


242 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


hide gromets resting on the thole pins, and the water raining from 
their broad blades. 

“ That must be a man-of-war off here on the quarter,” exclaimed 
the young officer at the tiller, “ ringing for church.” 

The old seamen at the sweeps unconsciously took off their hats, 
wiped the sweat from their brows, and listened. 

“ It can hardly be the Monongahela,'^'* said Ben, “ though p’raps 
she took more of a breeze to wind’ard off the island.” 

Still the schooner glided on noiselessly over the sea, until, a 
minute later, Harry Greenfield sung out : 

“ Port, sir ; or we’ll be plump into a vessel here ahead ! ” 

The helm was put down, and the Rosalie sheered off to starboard 
within a biscuit toss of a large brig. 

“ By my grandmother’s wig ! ” said Ben, “ that’s the old 
Martha Blunt ” 

“ Henri,” said Paul Darcantel, in French, in his deep voice, 
“ the last request I shall ever make is to keep on. There is not a 
moment to lose.” 

“ Give way, men ! ” shouted the officer, in a decided tone, as 
the words came with a stifled gasp from his heaving breast, while 
the sigh that followed was drowned in the splash of the sweeps in 
the water as they again chafed in their gromets, and the foam 
flashed away from the blades astern. 

But there was another splash. A white object sprung with a 
bound over the brig’s quarter, dipping below the surface of the 
calm sea, and when it came up, two great flippers, with a large 
black head between them, struck out like the paws of an alligator, 
breasting the water with a speed that soon brought him within a 
few fathoms of the schooner’s low counter. Then seizing hold of 
the slack of the main-sheet which was thrown to him, he came up, 
hand-over-hand, as if he could tear the stern frame out of the 
schooner. A vigorous grasp caught him by one paw, and, with 
the other laid on the taffrail, he leaped on deck as if his feet had 
pressed a spring-board instead of the yielding water. 

Again, as in the olden time, he held his little Henri aloft in his 
giant arms ; but this time it was Banou who was dripping from a 
souse, and not his little master. 

“ Give way, my souls ! Another thousand dollars if we get up 
to the Key before dark ! ” said the deep, low tones of the tall 
doctor. 

“ Good Lord ! ” roared a voice from on board the brig, now shut 


THE EOTE LAID UP 


243 


up agaiu all alone in the fog — ‘‘ if that old nigger has not gone 
and jumped overboard, my name’s not Binks ! ” 

“ All right, Mr. Binks ; Banou is safe ! Send a boat on board 
the Mono7igahela, and report that the schooner Mosalie has passed 
ahead,” went back in a clear note. 

It was some considerable time before Binks could believe that 
he had not been hailed by David Jones himself, for he had seen 
nothing, being at the time in the lower cabin reading his Bible, 
and writing his name, “ Binnacle Binks, Master of brig Martha 
Blunt on the fly-leaf ; and he was only disturbed in this praise- 
worthy occupation by a heavy body plunging overboard, and by 
one of the drowsy crew, who had, with his comrades, been sleep- 
ing near, reporting that circumstance with his eyes half shut. 

Then young Binks took considerable more time to get a boat 
lowered, and send her, with the cabin-boy, to the large frigate 
close on his beam, whose bell had just struck seven. 

The boat, too, with four sleepy hands to pull her, took consider- 
able time to find the ship, and then the whistles were piping to 
dinner, and all the good people from the brig, with the flag-officers, 
had retired to the commodore’s cabin for luncheon. 

When Jacob Blunt heard the news, regardless of sherry and 
cold tongue, he himself got into his boat, leaving his passengers 
in an excited frame of mind, but rather comfortable on the whole, 
and returned to the teak bosom of his Martha. 

There he took young Binks firmly by the shoulder, and walked 
him aft to the rail where his father — long since dead and mur-' 
dered — bad been used to sit and sing sailor ditties. 

Then he impressively told him that ‘‘ this ’ere sort of thing 
wouldn’t do, even if he was a-readin’ the Bible, which was all 
very good on occasion, sich as clear weather out on the broad 
Atlantic ; but in fog times, when schooners was creepin’ about in 
among the Antilles, and partick’larly off Jamaiky or the south 
side of Cuby, mates and men should be wide-awake and lookin’ 
everywheres. And harkee. Binnacle, when you commands this 
’ere old brig, or maybe a brand-new Martha Blunt., and me and my 
old woman lying below together in narrow cabins, you must bear 
in mind these my words. 'Well, my boy, don’t rub that ’ere sleeve 
over your eyes no more, and it will be all right.” 

Young Binks promised “that from that ’ere minnit he would 
never sit on no rails, or sip no grog, or even read his old mother’s 
Bible when he wos on watch, but always be as keerful as if there 


244 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE CENTIPEDE 


wos no lady passengers or children on board, or bags of shiners in 
the lower cabin stateroom — that he would ! And his blessed old 
second father might take his davy he, young Binks, would never 
be caught foul again.” 

Meanwhile the girlish schooner tripped away far out of sight, 
and when the fog lifted and the breeze came to blow it to leeward 
she was once more tidily dressed in snowy while, and splashing 
the water from her black eyes, as the last rays of the setting sun 
showed her the Tiger’s Trap in the distance. 

“ Henri, my boy, put your arms around me again as you did 
when I lay in torture on the trestle on that island. Have no fears 
for me ; we shall meet again. There ! now listen to me. Here is 
a packet which I wish you to carry to Porto Rico with this letter. 
The old judge is alive, I think, to whom this letter is addressed, 
and it may perhaps soothe his declining years. I wish to take 
your little gig, with Banou and Ben Brown — no more force — and 
if, as I believe, that villain has returned to his former haunt, I 
will fulfil my oath to its very letter. Meanwhile, so soon as we 
have shoved off, while the breeze still holds, run down to the 
frigate — she is not three leagues olf — and you will be in your 
yearning parents’ arms, and those of the girl you love, before 
they sleep. There, I know you will think of me. Farewell ! ” 


CHAPTER L 
ON A BED OF THORNS 

" An orphan’s curse would drag to hell 
A spirit from on high : 

But oh, more horrible than that 
Is the curse in a dead man’s eye ! ” 

“ Oh, Heaven I to think of their white souls, 

And mine so black and grim ! ” 

“ Ho, ho ! ” said Captain Brand, as he stretched out his straight 
legs in their canvas casings on the sand of the little cove, “ safe 
and sound, and not a soul to share this nice supper of that good 
old man Miguel ! 

“Ho ! ” continued he ; “ here at last ! No Babette to cook for 
me — no Centipede — but that stanch little boat presented 
me by that generous fisherman, who, I fear, is drowned by this 


ON A BED OF THORNS 


245 


time. Well, let us enjoy ourselves ! Excellent red snapper this ! 
Sausage rather too much garlic, perhaps ; but the brown bread 
and the aguardiente unexceptionable. Blaze away, my little fire ; 
your sticks cost me much labor to dig out of my once comfortable 
house, but you are better than gunpowder any day. 

“ Just to think of the years that have passed ! That great bank 
of sand there over the sheds, nearly as high as the crag, where 
my brave fellows once caroused; the young cocoa-nut springing up 
on the crag itself — not a vestige of my old habitation left, or the 
bright blades or pleasant guests to dine with me ! ” 

Here there was something of the old cold murderous scowl on 
the captain’s face as he twisted the point of his nose. 

“ Ah, yes ! there may be my wary-eyed Sanchez left, though the 
last I heard of him he was in the Capilla dungeon of the Moro. 
And that ” — grating his teeth, and glaring with his icy eyes at the 
fire, as if those two blocks of ice would put it out — “ cursed doc- 
tor who pursues me ! Well, well, neither of those old friends 
is here yet, and before another sun sets I shall bequeath the old 
den to them both. Ho, ho ! with those solid bags of clinking 
metal I shall leave them as much sand and rocks as they choose to 
walk over. What a sly devil I was to stow that treasure away 
for a rainy day ! Never told a living being ! Poisoned the fellow, 
too, who made the lock ! Capital joke, ’pon my soul ! ” 

This was the very last of the very few jokes that Captain Brand 
ever enjoyed. 

“ And, now I think of it, I wonder if my thirsty old mate’s 
bones are yet lying there in the vault. What loas his name ? such 
a bad memory I have ! Oh, Gibbs — Bill Gibbs — with one leg ! 
Ho, ho ! ” 

Here Captain Brand drained some more aguardiente out of a 
cracked earthen pot, and slapj^ed his fine legs with rapture. 

“ And those dear girls who married me ! Lucia, too ! ” 

The dirty wretch started as the wing of a seabird swooped down 
over the pure inlet, and he thought he saw a white forefinger 
beckoning him on to his doom. 

“ Pshaw ! ” said he, smoothing down his filthy tattered shirt 
with the finger of his mutilated left hand, “ how nervous I am ! 
But what a bungle Pedillo made of that marriage ! And my good 
Ricardo, too ! What a feast the sharks must have had on his oily 
well-fed carcass ! Misericordia ! Ho, ho ! I believe I’ll bid my 
friends good-night.” 


246 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “CENTIPEDE 


Captain Brand stretched himself out at full length on the shelly 
strand, his boat, which rode calmly in the little inlet, secured by a 
clove-hitch round his right leg ; his bald head, with the few dry- 
gray hairs on his temples, resting on Miguel’s sennit hat, and the 
thin scum of frosty eyelids drawn over his frozen eyes — cracking 
their covering at times — until at last the pirate, aided by fiery 
aguardiente, slept. 

A few late cormorants and seabirds sailed over him in his fitful 
slumber, and uttered a cold cry, as if their pecking-time had not 
come yet, but would shortly, as they sought their silent retreats on 
the wall of rocks opposite. 

And Captain Brand dreamed, too — of the old laird, his father, 
in prison ; his mother weeping over forged notes ; the sleeping, 
unsuspecting people he had treacherously murdered ; the pillages 
he had committed ; the men he had slain in open conflict ; those 
he had executed with his own private cord ; the poor women who 
had died in worse torments, when, indeed, even knife or pistol, 
rope or poison, would have been a mercy; the agony and suffer- 
ings of those who survived them ; with all the concomitant 
horrors which make the blood run cold to think of, and which made 
the pirate’s almost freeze in his veins — living years in minutes — 
did Captain Brand, as he lay there on the chill sand in his troubled 
nightmare of a sleep. 

“Ah! Dios! Dios/^^ chattered the Senora Banana Pancha, 
at the other outlet to the inlet, rolling over on the ledge of the 
rocks at the Tiger’s Trap. “ What has become of my Ig-Ig- 
na9io — the one-eyed old villain who has persecuted me for 
forty years ? Why did I cut the old launch adrift before I 
got in myself ? And here I am alone and desolate on this 
cursed island, and my Ig-Tg-na9io — bless his spark of an eye — 
not come back to me ! Ah ! Dios! Dios! what has become 
of the little man ? He will kill me, cierto^ when he comes back 
and finds the boat gone with all the money, which nearly broke 
his thin back to bring here ; but, Dios! Dios! I am dying of 
thirst, and not a shred of dried fish or jerked beef has gone into 
my old mouth ” 

Yes there has. Dona Pancha, for just then a piece of hawser-laid 
rope — rather dry perhaps, for mastication — was placed across your 
crying mouth that you might bite upon, if you would only stop 
your old tongue. 

For while you were screaming on the rocks, and yelling for your 


ON A BED OF THORNS 


247 


Ig-Ig-na9io, who went back for the last bag of gold that wasn’t 
there, a light gig glided in like a blackfish, and a bigger blackfish 
jumped up and stopped your old mouth, Pancha, with that bit of 
hide rope. But if you will keep quiet, Pancha, and not exorcise 
Banou for the Evil One, that old nigger will give you a cup of 
liquid not known in the devil’s dominions, and treat you also to 
some white biscuit to nibble upon. 

Ah, you will, eh ? and tell all about that thin curl of smoke, 
which you believe to have been made by that coal-eyed Ig-Ig- 
na9io, away up there by the inlet ? Now keep quiet again, old 
Lady Banana ; and while your screaming mouth is gagged, don’t 
cut this small gig away, or else she may navigate herself out to 
sea, as did your Ig’s launch, and you be left desolate again. 

The tropical night was still ; the lizards wheetled, the breakers 
roared on the outer ledge, the ripples washed musically on the 
shelly shores, the alligators flapped about on the surface of the 
lagoon, the insects buzzed around the mangrove thickets ; and as 
the gray dawn of morning appeared, and the rain began to fall, a 
steaming hot mist arose, through which the seabirds flapped their 
wings and sailed away in search of their morning’s meal. The 
sharks and the deep seafish, however, lay still and motionless, low 
down by the base of the reefs, and watched with their cold round 
eyes. Captain Brand, too, arose, and, opening his green, bluish 
eyes, smoothing his moulting feathers, and splashing his fins in the 
wet sand, took an observation. 

This was the rainy day for which Captain Brand had laid by all 
that money to spend it in ! 

It was a Monday morning — Black Monday for Captain Brand — 
when, after divesting his leg of the clove-hitch, he secured old 
Miguel’s boat to a large stone, and then, according to his own 
ancient practice, he clambered with difficulty up to the venerable 
crag. Captain Brand had no spy-glass, and there was a good deal 
of rain falling, but yet he thought he saw a large ship, a brig, and 
a small schooner in the offing. 

So Captain Brand scrambled down again, a good deal discon- 
certed, knowing it would be hours and hours before those vessels 
got up to the island, even were they so inclined ; but, neverthe- 
less, he bestirred himself. Fortifying his inner man with the last 
half-pint of aguardiente for breakfast, which quite refreshed him, 
he went to work. 

First, he took Miguel’s copper coffeepot, into which he emptied 


248 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


that disciple of the net’s sharkoil jug, which Miguel himself used 
for a torch to attract the fish. Then, with a strip of old canvas — 
part of one leg to Captain Brand’s trousers, to such straits was he 
reduced — seized like a ball on the end of a stick, and a match-box, 
he was all ready for Black Monday’s work. 

Captain Brand, however, made one serious omission ; he snugly 
stowed away his beautiful pistols in a locker of the boat to keep 
them dry, never having been wet but twice before in all his marine 
excursions — the first time at Cape Garotte, and the next when he 
jumped overboard from the brigantine at St. Jago. He set great 
store by these valuable implements, for they had done him good 
service in time of need. Miguel came into possession of them 
afterward, and sold them almost for their weight in gold. 

But, for the first time. Captain Brand forgot his personal friends 
and bosom companions. It was a great oversight ; and he was 
extremely sorry when it was too late to go back for them. How- 
ever, with the copper oil-pot dangling from his littl^ finger, 
where the sapphire once shone, and the torch-stick in the other 
hand, he marched boldly over the sandy ridges toward the 
crag. 

But, Captain Brand, there had been three pairs of open eyes 
watching you through every mouthful of snapper you snapped, 
and every drop of fiery white rum you swallowed. Ay; and 
while you tossed about on the shelly beach, with the red glow of 
the embers of the fire lighting up your cold-blooded, wrinkled 
face — while, twisting your nose, you muttered “ ho, ho’s ! ” of 
murderous satisfaction — there was not a bird that swooped over 
you, or a lizard on the rocks with jet beads of eyes, that watched 
you so sharply as did those attentive beholders from the crag. 

And when you made your observations from the young cocoa- 
nut clump, those watchers retired down the opposite side, and 
two of them clambered through a hole in the roof of the decaying 
little chapel, while the other moved to the little cemetery of coral 
gravestones, and there scooped a place in the sand and cactus 
behind the one cut with the letter L. 

Captain Brand meanwhile came on, picking his way through 
the dense cactus, which lacerated his legs and sadly tore the 
remains of his loose canvas. The rain came down in torrents, the 
thunder growled and crashed as the tropical storm burst over the 
island ; and just as a vivid sheet of forked lightning seemed to 
strike the crag, and the awful peal that followed shook it to its 


ON A BED OF THORNS 


249 


base, CaptaiD Brand crept for shelter within the cleft of the rock, 
and sat down to prepare for a more extended research. 

He may have been gone twenty minutes ; but when he again 
emerged the rain had ceased, the clouds were breaking away, and 
the gentle sea breeze blowing, while Captain Brand looked a thou- 
sand years older. He seemed to have borrowed all the million of 
wrinkles from his compadre^ in addition to those he already pos- 
sessed. The thin lids of his frozen green — now quite solid — eyes 
had apparently exhaled by intense cold, and left nothing but a 
stony look of horror. 

What caused our brave captain to reel and stagger as he plunged 
with a bound out into the matted cactus, without his tattered hat, 
like a wolf flying from the hounds ? Had he trodden on a snake, 
or seen his compadre^ or had that white finger waved him away ? 
Yes, all three ! But the interview with his one-eyed compadre 
had shocked him most. 

On he came, driving the hot, wet sand before him, toward the 
Padre Ricardo’s chapel. There he paused for breath, though it 
was only by a spasmodic effort that he could unclose his sheet- 
white lips, where his sharp teeth had met upon them, and held his 
mouth together as if he had the lockjaw, while he snorted through 
his nostrils. 

“ Ho ! ” he gasped, “ the spying old traitor has sacked the 
cavern, and the gold must have gone in that launch I saw the 
night I came over the reef. Ho ! the traitor has found the torture 
I promised him ; but I would like to have killed him a little 
slower.” 

Here Captain Brand, having regained some few faculties and 
energy, moved on beyond the church till he came to the white 
coral headstone, where he stood still. 

It was his last walk on deck or sand ! Shading his still horror- 
stricken eyes by both hands, he glared to seaward. 

“ Ho, ho ! there you are, my Yankee commodore, with that old 
brig under convoy, and that pretty schooner ! Reminds me of my 
old Centipede. Bueno! there are other Centipedes.^ and I must 
begin the world anew. I am not old ; here is my strong right arm 
yet ; and who can stop me ? ” 

Captain Brand made these remarks in a loud tone, as if he 
wanted the whole world to hear him, and as if he had failed in 
early life and come to a strong resolution to retrieve his past 
errors. 


250 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OP THE “ CENTIPEDE 


As he waved his strong right arm aloft, while in imagination 
blood rained from the blade of his cutlass after cleaving the 
skull by a blow dealt behind the back of an unsuspecting skipper 
or mate, suddenly he paused, and the arm fell powerless at his side, 
where it hung dangling loose like a pirate from a gibbet on a 
windy night. He caught sight of the old broken cocoa-nut trunk 
to which he had hitched the green silk rope, with its noose around 
his victim’s neck, and he endeavored to prevent himself falling to 
the sand. 

“ Ho ! ” he choked out, his jaws rattling like dry bones, “ I see 
it all now. The column was snapped just where the rope was 
hitched, and the trestle must have been torn to pieces by the hurri- 
cane. Ho, ho ! That’s the way my man escaped, to dog me all 
over the world. Ho ! I have no time to lose; he may be here at 
any moment.” 

This was the last connected speech that Captain Brand ever 
made in this world, or in the world to come, perhaps, for at the 
last word Paul Darcantel rose in all his revengeful majesty before 
him. With folded arms he bent upon the pirate his dark, stern 
eyes, wherein the revenge of twenty years was gleaming with a 
concentrated power. 

“ You palsied villain ! The oath I took to you, and for which 
I have been accursed, expired yesterday ! I took another myself, 
when we stood here last together, and I am come to fulfil that 
oath, and — strike ! ” 

His terrible voice and words came back in an echo from the crag, 
and they seemed, with their intense energy, to pierce and shrivel 
the man before him into sleet. And the pirate would have fallen 
had not two huge black, lignum-vitsB paws grappled him about the 
body, pinioning his arms to his sides as if they had been bolted 
through^and through, while at the same moment another pair of 
tough seaweed flippers wound a lashing round his straight legs, 
and they laid him gently down on the sandy esplanade. 

“ The trestle, Banou ! And you, Ben, bring the hide strands, 
the faded old cord, and that black altar-cloth ! ” 

The pirate lay on his back, his eyes wide open — for he could not 
shut them since the lids had gone in frost — but the solid balls, 
light green now in the light, rolled from side to side. He recog- 
nized the old apparatus, too, though it was in different hands from 
those of Pedillo and his confederate ; and he saw also that, though 
the pale green rope was rotten, yet his knowledge of nautical 


ON A BED OF THORNS 


251 


matters taught him that it yet might bear a taut strain, and that 
those coils of hide thongs never gave way by any amount of tug- 
ging, and he saw as well that they had been recently dipped in 
grease. 

. But what was to be done with that rotten, moth-eaten old cloth 
which the men used to play monte on on Saturday nights in the 
sheds, and on which the good padre played his cards likewise in the 
chapel ? It was not to keep the cold air away from him, or shield 
his half-naked body from the poisonous insects. Then what could 
it be for ? 

“ Lift him up, men, and when you lash him down, leave only 
that little finger free ! ” 

Ben Brown squatted himself on a stone beside the bier, and with 
his cutlass unbuckled and laid on the sand, and sleeves rolled up, 
began his work as if he had a chafing-mat to make for the dead- 
eyes of the frigate’s lower shrouds, and, though in a hurry, still 
intended to make a neat job of it. He had a small and rather 
sharp-pointed marline-spike, too, which he wore habitually, like a 
tailsman, round his neck, and which stood him in hand in the intri- 
cate parts of his task. 

Taking in at a glance the exact amount of hide stuff he required, 
he middled the coils, and passing each strand fair and square, his 
old bronzed arms went backward and forward, under and over — 
sometimes pricking a little hole by accident in the pirate’s own 
thin hide as he passed the strips by the aid of his marline-spike, 
but always apologizing in his bluff, rough way, though without 
squirting tobacco juice into his victim’s face, as did Mr. Gibbs to 
Jacob Blunt. 

“ Beg pardon, ye infarnal pirate ; but that stick will do ye no 
harm. It ’ll heal much sooner than the iron spike one of your crew 
drove through both cheeks of my watch-mate when "you gagged 
him on board the brig. 

“ I say, old nigger, hand us a little more of that slush, will ye ? 
This ’ere strand won’t lie flat. Thankee, old darky ! Kitch 
hold on that lower end, will ye ? and draw it square up between 
his pins, and straighten out that ’ere knee-joint a bit — so fashion. 

“ I wouldn’t hurt ye, you ugly villain, for a chaw of tobaccy. 

“ Warm work, shipmate ! Suppose you just toddle down to the 
boat for that ’ere grafted bottle lyin’ in the starn-sheets, and bring 
a tin pot of fresh water with you ; the gentleman might be thirsty, 
you know. 1 am — Benjamin Brown, of Sandy Pint, seaman,” 


252 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


So Benjamin plaited Captain Brand, late of the Centipede^ down 
on his bier ; not a thong too little, or one in the wrong place ; a 
strand between each of his toes, and the big ones turned up in 
quite an ornamental way, and worked around with a Turk’s-head 
knot. 

“ Breathin’ works all reg’lar, too, no bit of hide bearin’ an une- 
qual strain over his bread-basket. Throat and jaw -tackle in fair 
talkin’ order, little finger free ; and there, Capting Brand, jist let 
old Ben reward ye, good for evil, ye child-murdering scoundrel, 
for the lick your mate gave him with the pistol on the head, by 
placing this soft pillow of green silk rope under your bare skull. 
There — a little this side, so as ye can look at your finger, while I 
pass this broad piece of stuff over your ear. Don’t ye look at me, 
ye infarnal scoundrel, or I’ll let this ’ere copper spike slip into one 
of yer junk-bottle glims! 

“ Now,” continued Ben, I’ll take a spell till the doctor and the 
old nigger come back.” 

Ay, the job was done, and the mat over the dead-eyes of the 
shrouds. 

During this neat and seamanlike operation Paul Darcantel wan- 
dered away on the tracks of the flying wolf till he came to the cleft 
in the rock. There he picked up and lighted the torch and stalked 
on. Presently he came to the stones before the low cavern, and 
pushed his way in with the blazing torch before him. Had Paul 
Darcantel had nerves, they would have shaken at what he saw ; 
but having none to shake, he calmly fixed his ej^es upon the 
sight. 

There lay the head of the ancient Igna9io, caught, as he tried to 
creep out of the treasure chamber, by the falling of the stone slab. 
It must have been sudden, for the stump of a paper cigar was still 
seized in his wrinkled lips, while the snakelike curls twined about 
his ears, and his wary eye looked out with its usual suspicious 
intensity, and seemed to throw out a spark of fire in the reflection 
of the torch. Rising from a coil in a slimy bed of sand before the 
.head was a venomous serpent, with his graceful neck curved into 
the broad flat head, all like an ebony cane, straight, motionless, 
and elegant to the curved top — fascinated by that single living orb 
of the dead man. 

The human intruder left this well-matched pair to their own 
venomous devices, and winding his way on, he soon came to the 
open door to the vaults. A powerful kick smashed in the door of 


ON A BED OF THORNS 


253 


the dungeon, and while the rusty bolts were still ringing on the 
stone pavement Paul Darcantel entered the loathsome chamber. 

He saw nothing at first save a few fragments of broken crockery 
and a rusty pot — not even a rat ; but flaring the torch down upon 
the mouldy floor something sparkled in the light. This he snatched 
up, and it was the long-lost locket and chain which had once rested 
around the baby boy’s neck. 

When the doctor strode back to the esplanade of the chapel he 
found Benjamin Brown and Banou taking a friendly sip out of the 
tin pot. 

“ Well, sir,” said Ben, as he got on his pins and strapped on his 
cutlass, “ there he is, sir ; and as neat a piece of cross-lashing as 
ever I did. He looks as if he growed there, jist like a hawkbill 
turtle a-bilin’ in the ship’s coppers, only he can’t paddle about. I 
did it marciful, too, sir, and tried to convarse with him, in case 
he had any presents to make to his friends. Why, sir, and Avould 
you believe it ? I offered to pour a drop of grog — mixed or raw — 
down his tight mouth, but he never had the perliteness to thank 
me or ax me a question, but only looked wicked at me. Consarn 
him, if he had only winked, I wouldn’t mind it ! ” said Ben, with 
much indignation ; “ but, however, I don’t b’lieve he’s any think 
to leave or any friends left ! ” 

But Captain Brand, though speechless without being tongue- 
tied, and unable to wink, still thought. And what did the doctor 
propose to do with him in case he was not to be stung to death by 
insects, sand-flies, mosquitoes, and what not ? 

“ Lift the trestle for the last time, men, and stand it here over 
this thick bed of cactus, so as the little finger may touch the letter 
on this white tombstone.” 

Now Captain Brand’s doubts were relieved, and he knew what 
was coming. Oh, ho ! ho ! 

“ There — that is right ! Now collect stones and rocks, and wall 
this trestle up solid to the edge of the frame, so that a hurricane 
can’t loosen it.” 

Big Banou went to work now, and presently his job was done — 
coral rocks and loose headstones from pirates’ graves, well packed 
down with sand, made the sides of the living tomb. Then the 
black pall was thrown over the body, and they left the pirate to 
his inevitable doom. 

Soon the three executioners reached the Tiger’s Trap. 

“ Banou, take this locket and chain — ah! you know them well — 


254 


CAPTAIN BRAND, OF THE “ CENTIPEDE 


to your young master. Brown, the two thousand dollars will be 
placed in your and Greenfield’s hands for distribution among the 
schooner’s crew ; make a good use of it. Tell the commodore that 
I shall take an old woman we have found here away with me in a 
stolen fisherman’s boat to Manzanillo, and within the year I shall 
be at home. There — shove ofiF, my lads ! ” 

As the gig skimmgd through the Tiger’s Trap, Paul Darcantel, 
with the widow of Igna9io, sailed out by the Alligator’s Mouth, 
and as they crossed that roaring ledge the sun sunk in its unclouded 
glory in the west, and the young moon, with its thin pearly cres- 
cent, looked timidly down upon the island. 

And the night passed, and the next and the next, with scorching 
days and blazing suns between them ; while the mangrove, the 
palm, the cocoa-nut, and the cactus — ah ! that luxuriant plant 
throve apace — shooting up its steel-pointed bayonets two inches of 
a night in thorny needles as thick as pins in a paper, growing 
clean through the hide of ox or man like blood, till their hard- 
edged leaves met resistance, when, turning flat side up, they put 
forth a score for one of the needle bayonets. No escape from 
them. From shoulder to heel one long, hopeless agony. The 
fierce sun flaming down, absorbed by the black pall of death ! The 
moon glimmering in pale white rays of splendor through the moth- 
eaten holes upon the finger and the white tombstone ! All the day 
and all the night ! 

Was it a dream. Captain Brand ? No, a frightful reality ! 
Don’t you feel a fresh thorn at every slow pulse of the heart they 
are aiming at ? And don’t you hear those dread croakings of 
gulls and cormorants flapping in the air, who have left their prey 
on the reef to join the vultures in their feast on the shore ? You 
may almost catch the grating sounds of the rasping jaws of the 
sharks as they crowd into the inlet, and rest their cold noses on 
the shelly cove where you slept ! 

Flesh and blood, and pinions and beaks, can endure it no longer. 
A cloud of carnivorous birds swoop down at last, snap the black 
pall in their talons and bills, and fly fighting and screaming away 
with it. Another cloud, darker than the rest, light upon the body, 
and while the needle-points pierce the palpitating heart, and the 
breath flutters on the still clinched lips and nostrils, the eyes are 
picked out, and the flesh is torn piecemeal, hide strands and all, 
till nothing is left but a hideous white skeleton, with the long 
bony finger pointing to the letter L. 


ON A BED OP THORNS 


255 


The lizards wheetled on the rocks, the alligators lashed the 
lagoon amid the steaming mist of the mangrove roots ; the sharks 
and birds returned to the reefs, the cocoa-nuts waved their tufted 
tops, the palms crackled in the shower and gale, and the pure inlet 
murmured musically on the shelly shore for years and years over 
and around the deserted key, until the whitened bones crumbled 
into dust, and were borne away by the four winds of heaven. 

The hemp has been tarred and spread, the strands twisted, and 
the rope laid up. The knots have been turned in between good 
sailors and bad — between pirates and men-of-war’s-men — and here 
Harry Gringo hauls down his pennant until his reading crew care 
again to take a cruise with him in blue water. 


THE END 








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both sexes . — Boston Journal. 


Bookzellers and Postmasters usually receive Subscriptions- Subscriptions sent direct to the Publishers should be 
accompanied by Post-office Money Order or Draft. When no time is specified-, Subscriptions will begin with the current 
Number. Postage FREE in the United States, Canada, or Mexico. 

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 


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